People are used to government bureaucrats who treat them like a number and not a person,” says Matthew Holliday.
“Too often, your whole day could be ruined by someone at the DMV or the person who answers the phone at the government hotline you need to get information from. That’s why, in the Prothonotary’s Office, we always try to be the hero of someone’s day, not the villain.” Holliday might be considered a hero himself.
As of this writing, the Chester County Prothonotary, 2018 Citizen of the Year award winner, and West Chester resident sits on 13 local boards. “I just rolled off the West Chester Public Library Board of Trustees after eight years, including two years as President, and I’ll finish at the West Chester Area Senior Center Board of Directors after six years at the end of June,” he explains. That still leaves him with the roles of President of the Domestic Violence Center of Chester County, President of the Friends Association for Care and Protection of Children, President of the West Chester Downtown Foundation, President of the Rotary Club of West Chester, Vice President of the Friars’ Society Alumni Association, Vice President of the ARC of Chester County, and Immediate Past President of the West Chester University Alumni Association.
Additionally, he is a board member of the Chester County Community Foundation, Greater West Chester Chamber of Commerce,Salvation Army of West Chester, Student Services, Inc., and West Chester Business Improvement District.It’s all about helping people, a pursuit Holliday envisioned for himself from a nearly age. “I saw too much need and pain in my community and I knew that I wanted to be part of the solution, not the problem,”he explains. When he was a young child, he fantasized about being an Assistant District Attorney when he grew up, devouring episodes of Law and Order whenever he could sneak them in, imagining himself locking up murderers for a living.As he got older, however, he realized he didn’t have enough money for an under-graduate degree, let alone the $120,000+he’d need for law school, so he switched gears. He flirted with the idea of being a history teacher, but ultimately found him-self nudged in the direction of running for office and becoming a public servant, so he switched his major at West Chester University from history education to political science.
Born in Montgomery County, Holliday moved around with his family quite a bit,mostly within the greater Philadelphia area. By the time he landed at WCU as a freshman in 2004, he had lived in 13 different places. “As soon as I arrived in West Chester, I fell in love,” he says. “It became the hometown I never had, and the people here have been so incredibly supportive and welcoming to me that I have no choice but to do everything I can to make Chester County the best it can possibly be.”From elected office, to volunteerism, to friendship, Matt Holliday is going above and beyond like no other member of this community. Holliday the Prothonotary So what is his job, exactly?
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