Hollerith, after graduating from Dartmouth College with a B.A. in Naval Science and Geology, attended and graduated in industrial design at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, now the University of the Arts. His career started with part-time jobs, drafting turbine blades, working in a design office and as a two-day-a-week instructor in industrial design at the Philadelphia Museum School.
Moving to Upper Montclair, NJ, he worked for Raymond Spilman full-time in New York City. From this emerged the opportunity to be director of industrial design for the Monroe Calculating Machine Company, working with products, packaging, branch offices, and the conversion of manufacturing facilities into administrative spaces. Monroe merged into Litton Industries, which offered additional opportunities for design in other divisions of Litton as they were acquired.
Shifting back to consulting took him to Henry Dreyfuss Associates and then into the adventuresome world of independent consulting, followed by a gradual move into retirement.
While at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art, he was Industrial Designers Institute (IDI) student chapter chairman and cofounder of the design fraternity. After becoming a member of the American Society of Industrial Design (ASID) in 1958, he became involved in a multitude of activities, ultimately leading to New York chapter chairman and finally president, after innovatively utilizing the petition process of IDSA.
Other activities included representing industrial design in Project Earning Power, the President's Committee on Employment of the Handicapped, ANSI standards, and the National Center for a Barrier-Free Environment. A recipient of two NEA grants for projects related to the handicapped, he received the New York Chapter's Bronze Apple Award in 1976, became a fellow of IDSA, and received recognition in Product Engineering magazine for one of his designs.
Representing United States Industrial Design, he served two two-year terms on the board of the International Council of the Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID) and carried a press pass for Industrial Design magazine, covering the Hannover Messe in Germany.
The vast bulk of his design work was associated with office products and companies in the business equipment field, including startup companies, two of which he was a co-founder.
