San Francisco County
Biographies
WALTER C.
NOLAN
Well known among the educationists of the bay region is Walter C. Nolan, who is a deputy superintendent of schools in the city of San Francisco. He was born at Stewarts Point, which is situated near the coast in Sonoma county, California, on May 1, 1875, and is a son of Charles P. and Josephine (Chenoweth) Nolan.
Charles P. Nolan was born in the state of Maine, and was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil war. He came to California by way of Cape Horn, in 1865, and here engaged in the lumber business with the Garcia Milling Company. Later he was foreman for the Duncan Mills Company of Sonoma county from 1880 to 1885. Next he owned and operated a fruit ranch near Sebastopol, in Sonoma county, which he continued until his retirement to private life in 1917. He now makes his home in Sebastopol. His wife was born in Sonoma county. Her father, John H. Chenoweth, was one of the original California pioneers of 1849. He was a native of the state of Kentucky, later emigrated to Illinois, thence to Missouri, from which state he crossed the western plains with ox-team. One year later, he returned to the east for the purpose of bringing his wife to California. He operated a line of boats from San Francisco to Stockton, at a time when the bay shore line came up to what is now Montgomery street. He also engaged in mining in Calaveras and Eldorado counties. Subsequently he bought a ranch in Sonoma county, where he conducted a stock and fruit raising business during the remainder of his life. There are apple trees still bearing on the old Chenoweth homestead which were planted before Mrs. Nolan was born, over three-quarters of a century ago.
Walter C. Nolan attended the Occidental district school in Sonoma county, also the Santa Rosa normal school. He then taught school for a time, following which he studied at the Pacific Methodist College in Santa Rosa. For four years thereafter, he was the supervising head of Sonoma city schools, also was a member of the Sonoma county board of education, and president of the same for one year. In 1908, he matriculated at the University of California, which was the beginning of five years of study in this institution. His wife and his daughter, who was then three months of age, accompanied him. During a portion of this time he earned his expenses by teaching in the San Francisco evening schools, in which he served as principal for seven years, his last evening school principalship being that of the Hamilton Evening School.
In the year 1914, Mr. Nolan purchased the San Francisco University School, which was a private school, and is now known as the Bates School. This is one of the oldest private schools on the Pacific coast, having been established in the year 1865. He conducted this institution for an interval of five years, then in 1918 entered the employ of the San Francisco city day schools as a principal of the Washington Grammar School for Boys. In 1924 he was assigned to organize the Portola Junior high school, and manifested most excellent ability. In 1925 he was appointed deputy superintendent of schools and placed in charge of the Junior high schools of the city. Six months later he was called to organize the department of personnel and curriculum. He remained in this capacity until the spring of 1931, when he was called back to the administration leadership of the Junior high schools of the system, remaining in charge of the personnel work which includes the departments of certification and retirement, which position he now holds.
Mr. Nolan was married to Edith Jerome Clark, of Sonoma county, a descendant of a pioneer family of that vicinity. To this union there have been born two children, namely: Shirley, who is twenty-three years of age (1931), a graduate of the University of California, and is now teaching in the San Francisco public schools; and Walter S., aged nineteen, who is now a student at the University of California. The daughter was born in Sonoma county and the son in San Francisco.
Mr. Nolan is a member of one of the oldest Masonic lodges in the state, Temple Lodge No. 14 of Sonoma. He belongs to the Commonwealth Club and to the educational honor fraternity, Phi Delta Kappa. Fishing and hunting have been his choice recreations for many years. Football and wrestling were his major sports in college. For four successive years he represented the University of California as a member of its first wrestling team in Pacific Coast tournaments. Later he represented the Olympic Club for the Pacific Coast Amateur Wrestling Championship. His excellent reputation in the city of San Francisco has been built upon a foundation of character as well as upon his accomplishments in educational work. He is keenly alive to his civic duties, and in every way has been observant and sympathetic in his relations with his fellow citizens and in his attention to worthy affairs of local interest.
Transcribed by: Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
Source: Byington, Lewis Francis, “History of
San Francisco 3 Vols”, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co.,
Chicago, 1931. Vol. 2 Pages 297-299.
© 2007 Jeanne Sturgis Taylor.
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