Francis Dolan

Francis X. (Frank) Dolan passed away from Glioblastoma at the Jack Byrne Center at Dartmouth Health on August 6, 2025, with his beloved closest family nearby and surrounded by love. If you knew Frank, you know how much he was loved and adored.

Frank was born in 1943 to Victoria M. Salem and Francis Xavier Dolan and grew up in Millinocket, Maine with his brothers and sister and a town full of friends. He graduated from Stearns High School in 1961. He used a photo he took of Mt. Katahdin with his cherished Porsche sports car in the foreground as his screen saver for decades.

After graduating from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1965 with a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, he spent a few years at Westinghouse before joining Creare, a small engineering consulting, R&D company in Hanover, NH. During his 40-year engineering career he made key technical contributions in a broad spectrum of projects, involving high speed fluid machinery, heat transfer, instrumentation and cryogenics. During his final ten years there, he was heavily involved in cryogenic systems for space applications. Frank was especially proud of his work in helping to restore operation of the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) on the Hubble Space Telescope. He retired from Creare in 2007.

Frank married Gail Graham in 1968, and they raised Kirsten and Andy in Norwich, VT. The family was involved with many aspects of this wonderful community. They also bought a camp on Joe's Pond in the Northeast Kingdom, which became Frank's happy place. He had a wooden boat he loved, a growing circle of friends, and a place for many sweet family times.

After Gail's passing, Frank found a new life partner, Janet (Jenny) Gelfan, who became his second wife. Besides staying active together, Frank took a deeper dive into dance, especially Argentine tango, one of Jenny's passions. Jenny felt she received unconditional love.

In his retirement, he further explored his love of photography and began his second "career" as an emergency room volunteer at Dartmouth Health, also serving on the hospital's volunteer leadership board.

Frank was fortunate enough to buy a second Porsche sports car later in life, which was always his dream. It was his pride and joy, and he loved driving it. He had the chance to ride with the top down (Jenny driving) just a week before he went into hospice.

He is predeceased by his parents, his first wife, and his son. He is survived by his wife Jenny Gelfan, his daughter Kirsten Dolan, grandson Zach Dolan (Kat), great grandson Mikian Dolan, siblings Gerry Dolan (Lynne Swindler), Charles Dolan (Sue Mackin), and Maggie Eckman (Bob) plus many loving nieces, nephews, plus his large extended family and circle of friends.

His family is so thankful to his primary care physician, Dr. Adam Schwarz, many providers at Dartmouth Health including neurology, oncology, radiation, speech therapy, the entire cancer center, his friends in the emergency department, and lastly to the Jack Byrne Center for Palliative and Hospice Care for their efforts and the extraordinarily kind care. Jenny additionally thanks the Hand-to-Heart Project for their in-home support.

Frank loved people. Even in his final alert moments his face lit up on seeing a friend. He was smart yet humbly so, caring, kind, easygoing yet thoroughly organized, funny in a low-key way.

His presence was a gift to all who knew him. This world is a better place because he was here.

A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday September 20 at 2pm at the Norwich Congregational Church.

In lieu of donations, please give some of your time as a volunteer for a group or an organization that touches your soul and who you personally want to support.

May we dwell in peace.

The Rand-Wilson Funeral Home in Hanover, NH is assisting the family