hollcroft received b.s. in 1912 and a.b. in 1914 from hanover college and then a.m. in 1915 from the university of kentucky. he received in 1917 his ph.d. from cornell university under virgil snyder and during ww i served in france as a second lieutenant in the field artillery. hollcroft was a mathematics professor at wells college from 1918 to 1954, when he retired as professor emeritus. he served for 14 years as associate secretary of the american mathematical society. in 1932 in zurich he was an invited speaker of the icm, with talk "the general web of surfaces and the space involution defined by it".