Inducted in 2017
Financial Services Executive

"I understand about indecision,
But I don't care if I get behind.
People livin' in competition:
All I want is to have my peace of mind."

These were the words that the quarterback, #7, chose for his 1982 yearbook quote — lyrics from a Boston song from his childhood.  In many ways, these words would foretell the sort of life he would lead.  And while it may seem counterintuitive that a future high-powered financial executive would get as far he did valuing “peace of mind” over “competition,” that is precisely the kind of man Brendan Dolan was.

The son of Irish immigrants, Brendan was born in New York City on January 20, 1964. His father, Felix Brendan Dolan, was a Korean War veteran and an operations mechanic with Con Edison. His mother, Mary Tansey Dolan, was a homemaker who had worked for Hearst Magazines before she left the publishing world to raise her family.

During Brendan’s early years, the Dolans lived in the Inwood section of Manhattan where he attended the parish school of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs until they moved across the Broadway Bridge into the Bronx, where he continued grade school at St. John’s in Kingsbridge. He was one of five siblings. His brothers, Brian, Charles and future Prep Trustee Thomas would all graduate from the Prep, in the Classes of 1983, 1979, and 1978 respectively. Not to be out-Fordhamed by her brothers, the only Dolan girl, Ann, would earn her own Maroon credentials, graduating from the University in 1995.

Brendan began his time at Shea Hall in September of 1978. Even as a freshman, the boy from Heath Avenue began to leave his mark on Fordham Prep. 

He was a remarkable athlete, and the whole Prep community immediately took notice. Before he even had become a Ram, Brendan had pitched on the City Championship All-Star Team for the Inwood Little League, and had played Irish football on the neighborhood team — and well, at that. A spot on the freshman football team was inevitable. 

But beyond his athleticism, Brendan possessed extraordinary clarity and insight. Barely a teenager, he had already figured out what mattered most in life: his faith, his family, his friends, and the sheer joy of living in the moment — at home, at school, on the playing field, on his 6 am paper route run, or even at his weekend job at the local Walbaum’s on Broadway. All who knew Brendan could not help but be inspired by the spirit of his youthful exuberance and the serene contentedness of his 14-year-old outlook on life. As so many of the Boys of ’82 have expressed over the years, Brendan was a young man who was completely alive and completely at peace with himself and with the world around him.

Four years later, with an outstanding three-year varsity record under his belt, Brendan would proudly represent Fordham Prep in the High School Senior Bowl. Later that school year, on June 4th, the gridiron standout and Student Government treasurer would graduate as a member of the Class of 1982 with fond memories of his time at Rose Hill, with classmates and teammates who would forever consider themselves honored to have had Brendan’s friendship, and with a football scholarship to the University of Rochester

As a Yellowjacket, Brendan continued to quarterback, and lent his share of blood and sweat to the Rochester rugby squad, as well. Off the field, he continued to be a force for good in the lives of many.  In the words of Lee Taylor, his college classmate and later colleague, Brendan was “a best friend to a lot of people throughout his undergraduate years and beyond. He was always there when anyone needed him.”

After college, Dolan started as a runner in pits of the New York Mercantile Exchange. In the cut-throat world of energy futures trading, Brendan advanced quickly — precisely by not cutting throats at all.  Even at the very heart of the financial world, a solid, centered, and well-grounded Brendan Dolan was not about to compromise his values to turn a quick buck. 

He would gain a reputation as an extraordinary trader, but the one thing he would never trade away was his soul. He insisted that everyone be treated honestly and fairly, he looked out for his colleagues’ professional and personal well-beings, and he fostered a culture of service and charity among his coworkers. As Brendan has often been quoted as saying: he had no clients; he only had friends. What a powerful role model he remains for Prep boys today who might be considering a future in finance for themselves.

On October 8, 1994, Brendan Dolan married Stacey Weinstein, the love of his life whom he had met on the Jersey shore. Stacey was a SUNY Oneonta grad and paralegal who was working towards her speech pathology degree at NYU. The Dolans moved to Glen Rock, New Jersey, and their house quickly became a gathering place for family, friends, and neighbors.  Love and life: these are what mattered most to Brendan and his bride, and their home was always filled with warmth and laughter.  

Brendan and Stacey would have two daughters, Sarah and Samantha. Being a husband and father were the greatest joys of Brendan’s life.

By 2001, a 37-year-old Brendan was a senior director and senior vice president at Carr Futures — one of the youngest in the firm to have ever reached that rank. He was at a meeting in an office on the 92nd floor of the North Tower of the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11th.

For those who were left behind — his wife and children, his parents and brothers and sister, and the friends he had gathered along the way — there would be pain and tears and anger and so many questions. But there would also be one consoling certainty for his loved ones: that Brendan was at rest in Eternal Peace — after all, “peace of mind” was what Brendan Dolan’s whole life had been about.