William J. Nolan

Nolan, William J. Beloved brother, husband, father and grandfather, passed away Sunday, July 5, 2009, in Fort Worth after a lengthy illness. Funeral: Mass of Christian Burial will be at 11 a.m. Friday at St. Andrew Catholic Church, 3304 Dryden Road, Fort Worth, Texas, with a reception to follow. The Rev. Charles Calabrese will be the celebrant. Interment: Private interment. Visitation: 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the family home. Pallbearers: grandsons, William Ryan Nolan, Stephen McMahon Nolan Jr., Patrick Liam Nolan, William Austin Bileci, and John Sebastiano Bileci. Honorary pallbearers: William L. Howard, Arthur A. Cerre, Brian A. Perkins, John A. Nolan and Charles D. Nolan Jr. Memorials: His memory may be honored with a gift to the Patricia and William J. Nolan Sr. Fund for Lymphoma Research at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Box 4486, Houston, Texas 77210-4486; or the University of Illinois Foundation for the Advanced Robotic Research and Training Laboratory, 1747 W. Roosevelt Road, Suite 302, Attention Kathy Wohihunter, Chicago, Ill. 60608-1203; or a charity of choice. Mr. Nolan was born July 1, 1925, in Minneapolis, Minn., to William L. and Katherine McMahon Nolan. He was a graduate of St. Paul Academy. He served in the Army Air Force during World War II and attended the University of Minnesota before joining his brother and best friend, Charles D. Nolan, at Nolan Bros. Inc., a general contractor in the heavy construction industry started by their grandfather. Numerous civil construction projects for the Army Corps of Engineers and municipalities across the country included local flood control work for tthe Clear Fork of the Trinity River, runways at Carswell Air Force Base and Sheppard Air Force Base, and the Dallas Water Treatment Plant in Sunnyvale, the largest public works project in Dallas-Fort Worth at the time. Although the children's most memorable project was the Cochiti Dam in Albuquerque, N.M., the most important contract he landed was in Texas in 1955, when he married Patricia Perkins. Together they raised six children. The Nolan brothers, joined later by their respective sons, went on to pioneer self-storages across New England and the Midwest, developing one of the largest private portfolios of properties in the country. His greatest interest was anything that involved his family, be it his cherished annual ski week in Snowmass with his sisters, taking his children out on Eagle Mountain Lake, parading as Uncle Sam on the 4th of July with his grandchildren, hauling a boat or gypsy wagon cross country for his kids, or any other support or encouragement he could provide to those he loved. He is remembered as a dedicated junior hockey coach, bringing the love of Minnesota hockey to Texas and the baseball coach with a customized batting machine he designed to operate without electricity, a contraption that delighted his young players and brutalized the shins of the fellow coaches who manned its pedals. The family wishes to thank all the many members of the medical community who worked so hard to extend every precious moment we had with our cherished patriarch, especially Dr. Alan Kelly, his nurse, Sandy Partridge, and his supportive staff, Dr. Peter Rutledge, Dr. John Burke, Dr. Terry McCarthy and Dr. Elliot Trotter, and the Harris Hospital nursing staff, Dr. Jorge Romaguera at M.D. Anderson Lymphoma Clinic, Dr. Pier Cristoforo Guilianotti and Dr. Sbrana at the University of Illinois Medical Center, and his kind and gentle caregivers, Patricia Diggs, Cynthia Kennard, Elizabeth Martinez and Rosie Wright. He was preceded in death by his brother, Charles, and his wife, Nancy Nolan. Survivors: Wife, Patricia P. Nolan; children, William J. Nolan, Jr. and wife, Alann, Michael R. Nolan and wife, Linda, Timothy P. Nolan and wife, Gemma, Stephen M. Nolan and wife, Shannon, Mary Katherine Nolan, all of Fort Worth, and Cyrena Nolan of Dallas; grandchildren, William Ryan, Alexa and Lauren Nolan, Kate, Sean and Alex Nolan, Sarah, Elysia and Claire Nolan, Stephen, Patrick and Ariana Nolan, and Austin and Sebastiano Bileci, all of Fort Worth; sisters, Elizabeth Cerre and her husband, Art of Denver, Colo., and Kathleen "Pudy" Howard and her husband, Bill of Wayzata, Minn.; and brother-in-law, Brian A. Perkins and his wife, Larue, of Fort Worth.