The insurance industry in this province is mourning the loss of John Nolan. Nolan passed away over the weekend after spending a half century in the business. He was 69.
45 years ago, John Nolan was working with Co-operators Insurance Company in St. John’s when he got a call that changed the course of his life.
Nolan’s boss had just offered him a job on the mainland. He declined the opportunity to move and instead took that call from John Munn. He also accepted the offer to help manage Munn’s insurance company.
Nolan’s son, Adam, says Mr. Munn told dad to “come early, stay late and see what happens.” John Nolan did both and it paid off. In 2008 he became the majority shareholder of Munn Insurance working alongside his sons C.J. and Adam.
CJ and Adam Nolan, flanking their father John.
While Nolan may have owned the business, Adam, who is the company’s COO, says his father never once contemplated putting his own name on the building.
Mun Insurance has a long history in the province dating back to 1904. “You don’t just change that brand and also dad wanted to honour that legacy for the Munn family” Adam Nolan told VOCM News.
John Nolan was the eldest of ten children. He grew up on Bell Island, and graduated from high school the year before the iron ore mines closed. He married his childhood sweetheart, Leady.
While Nolan was well known in the insurance business, he was also a prominent sports figure. Beyond his own days of playing hockey, baseball and soccer, Nolan became a coach, organizer and builder.
Adam says he remembers his father and others sitting around the kitchen table every week building coaching strategies and helping develop various leagues.
“These are the things that go on behind the scenes that people don’t see” Adam said. “Dad loved sports” he said.
Funeral services for John Nolan will be held on at 11 a.m Friday at St. Patrick’s Church on Patrick Street.
