When Patrick B. “Pat” Calnan was a young man, he delivered ice to clients who had ice chests in their homes — in a horse-drawn truck.
“That’s right,” said lifelong friend Jean Curley, who served with Calnan on the Lynn Zoning Board of Appeals. “He once took me down to where they used to have the horses. He had so many stories about Lynn. I learned more about Lynn from riding around with him looking at sites we’d be taking up for the board. Everywhere we went, there was something he knew about the place.”
“Pat had such historical knowledge of the workings of the city,” fellow Board member Norman Cole said. “We all bring a different perspective to the job, and I deferred to him when they were reviewing building plans. I took his word.”
“He knew building codes. He knew materials, structural plans,” Cole said. “Clearly that was a strong suit for him. I’ve certainly respected his opinion and followed it many times”
Mayor Jared Nicholson, who honored Calnan last week, shortly before his death, for his 50-plus years on the board, said Calnan had an enormous dedication to his community and “his insight and guidance will surely be missed.”
“I’m grateful to have been able to work with him on various projects over the past couple of years to have had the opportunity to personally recognize and thank him for his contributions at his last Zoning Board of Appeals meeting,” Nicholson said.
Three weeks before he died last week at the age of 95, his family had a big party for him and he got to see his family and friends, Curley said.
“I was glad for that,” Curley said. “He was my dearest friend.”
Calnan fit the definition of Renaissance man. His nephew Kevin Calnan, an attorney, said he knew all there was to know about zoning, as well as how to build things. He spent much of his professional life as a bricklayer and stone mason, and also owned, with his son John Calnan, Calnan Construction.
He was a big man, and Kevin Calnan said his uncle could handle the roughest laborer and, at the same time, talk with high-end homeowners.
“He was a horticulturalist too,” his brother Ed Calnan, the city’s former director of Community Development, said. “He loved flowers, and that just speaks to how well-rounded he was.”
“He always regarded himself as a construction man,” Kevin Calnan said. “And that’s in the truest sense of the word. He was about making things happen. On that board, he was more likely to tell someone what they could do, as opposed to what they couldn’t do.”
Kevin Calnan said his uncle was never about holding people back.
“If you wanted to put a driveway next to your house, he’d tell what what you needed to do,” he said. “He might even draw you the plan. But if it wasn’t right, it wasn’t right, and he could not be moved.”
Ed Calnan spoke of the family’s early days in Lynn’s brickyard section.
“Everybody was poor, and Pat was always working” Ed Calnan said. “He worked for an ice-delivery business, and he drove the horse that pulled the wagon. I remember that.”
Charlie Gaeta, chief executive officer of Lynn Housing and Neighborhood Development, said Calnan’s years with the ZBA were productive ones.
“He helped create home ownership opportunities for many low- and moderate-income families by supporting zoning adjustments in many underserved neighborhoods throughout the city,” Gaeta said.
But there were other sides to Pat Calnan too. He looked after his younger brother, especially once their parents died.
“I was still a teenager when they died,” Ed Calnan said. “Pat was like a father figure to me. He watched out for me to make sure I was on the straight and narrow. He didn’t have a lot of formal education, but he was an avid reader, especially manuals about how things worked.”
His fascination with the mechanics of various devices served him well when he was in the U.S. Army, Ed Calnan said.
“During the Korean War, he was stationed in Germany, and he became a forward observer. He had mastered the things you need to carry out that role. One day, his unit was in the woods, and they got lost. Pat had his compass and some of his other equipment and knowledge, and he got them out — and before the dining hall closed too,” Ed Calnan said.
As a result, even though Pat was only in the service for two years, he rose to the rank of staff sergeant because of his knowledge.
“He was a self-made man,” Ed Calnan said. “And to him, good, or even very good, wasn’t enough. It had to be excellent. That’s what he strove for.”
“Pat was a true gentleman,” Gaeta said. “He took great pride in his Irish heritage, his skills as a craftsman and his gardening.”
