Because of years of faithful service Paul and Anne Nolan have given our community, Signal Mountain will never be the same. Hours of recognition could never convey our deep respect, admiration, and appreciation for a couple who has helped establish such high standards in education.
The late Paul and Anne Nolan cut the ribbon at the opening of Nolan Elementary in 2009. Anne Nolan, a former Signal Mountain mayor and town councilwoman, passed away in December.Signal Mountain lost a former mayor and one of its biggest supporters of elementary education last month with the passing of 91-year-old Anne Lewis Nolan. She and her late husband, Paul Nolan, who passed away in 2009, played a large role in getting another elementary school built on the mountain, and it was named Nolan Elementary in their honor.
Anne Nolan served on the Signal Mountain Town Council for nearly a decade, in the role of councilwoman as well as mayor. She and her late husband, a former state legislator and longtime Hamilton County commissioner, helped to secure the land for Shackleford Ridge Park that eventually became home to Nolan and Signal Mountain Middle/High School.
Nolan Principal Shane Harwood said that when he came to the school seven years ago, the faculty decided to honor the Nolans by bestowing the Paul and Anne Nolan Citizenship Award upon one male and one female fifth-grader each year. The award recognizes students for qualities related to good citizenship such as selflessness and helping others, for which Anne Nolan was known.
Her own contributions to the community were recognized by the Signal Mountain Community Guild when Nolan was honored with the group’s Woman of the Year Award in 1987.
Harwood said that when the school first started giving the Paul and Anne Nolan Citizenship Award, she would attend the ceremony in support of the winners, but in recent years she had to miss the presentation due to her health.
“The big thing that stood out to me was, in the last three years that she couldn’t participate, when I called her she was always so gracious, and told me how appreciative she was of what the students were doing and how proud she was to be associated with the school,” said Harwood.
Her daughter-in-law, Nolan art teacher Kathie Nolan, has presented the award in her stead for the past few years. Harwood said the school plans to plant a dogwood tree outside Kathie Nolan’s classroom sometime this spring to memorialize the matriarch.
Email Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com.