When Holweger was a senior on the Fenwick boys basketball team, Coach John “Butch” Rossi told him that an underclassman, Tony Esposito, had recently lost his father and was struggling.
“He took me under his wings,” Esposito said. “Justin was just that kind of guy. He pumped you up.”
Holweger, a longtime supporter of Fenwick athletics and a large sports fan, died July 7. He was 79.
He graduated from Fenwick in 1963 and Miami University, then worked at Armco and Contech.
Holweger was diagnosed with stage 4 melanoma 17 years ago, and doctors gave him only months to live, said his daughter, Beth Smith.
But Holweger was determined to beat the cancer, or at least delay the inevitable.
“He fought for as much time as he could get,” said his son, Mike Holweger, girls basketball coach at Springboro High School.
On July 5, two days before he died, Holweger was watching his favorite Major League Baseball team, the Cincinnati Reds, play the Philadelphia Phillies and Middletown native Kyle Schwarber, his favorite MLB player.
When Schwarber stepped to the plate, Holweger asked his wife to move so he could see the TV. Schwarber homered in the eighth inning as the Phils won, 5-1.
He pumped his fist and yelled, “That a boy Kyle,” his son said.
That was his last memory of the game he loved.
When Holweger wasn’t cheering on a professional team or athlete, he was rooting for others, regardless of their arena. He was a “life coach” before that term existed.
“He had a genuine interest in other people,” his son said. “He was able to celebrate the successes and experiences of other people. He wanted to help others reach goals, their dreams.”
Marshall, 57, can certainly attest to the impact Holweger had on her. She didn’t want to live in Illinois with her parents and miss her senior year at Fenwick.
Then the Holwegers invited her to be part of their family.
“They’re the best,” she said. “God planned it that way. They were a blessing to me. You think the worst thing will happen when you have to live away from where you grew up your whole life. Moving back turned out to be the best thing to ever happen to me.”
She’s listed as a daughter in Holweger’s obituary and her three children referred to him as grandpa. Her boyfriend even asked Holweger for her hand in marriage.
“I don’t think I would have survived without them,” she said.
Smith called her father the “most loving, honorable, high integrity” person she knows.
“He touched so many lives,” she said. “He had a way of making everyone feel like the most important person that was in his life at that moment. He truly cared.”
More than 60 years after they played basketball together at Fenwick, Holweger and Esposito remained close friends. Holweger was the best man in Esposito’s wedding and the families often ate together.
“He always made you feel good,” Esposito said. “It came natural to him.”
Holweger coached basketball at Fenwick and admired legendary UCLA Coach John Wooden. His coaching philosophy mirrored Wooden’s, his son said.
“He believed in building people up instead of tearing down, especially young people,“ said Holweger, who remembers those lessons from his father. ”He taught me to do it the right way and never shy away from hard work."
JUSTIN HOLWEGER ARRANGEMENTS
Inurnment will be at 11 a.m. Aug. 13 at Woodside Cemetery, Section 10.
A celebration of life open house will be held from noon to 3 p.m. Aug. 13 at Holy Family Parish-Holy Trinity Parish Center.
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