Robert "Bob" Emmett Dolan

Robert (Bob) Emmett Dolan, Sr., age 83, passed away on the 27th of August 2017 from natural causes at home under the care of his loving family in Lexington, South Carolina. He is survived by his wife Sylvia Swift Dolan, five children and their spouses, Robert E. Dolan, Jr. (Sandra), Michael A. Dolan, Sr., Richard W. Dolan (Cindy), Matthew J. Dolan (Angie) and Colleen Dolan Metts (Craig Metts), ten grandchildren, Michael Dolan, Jr., Jennifer Dolan Rabon, Christina Dolan, Caroline Dolan, McKenzie Dolan, Courtney Dolan, Caitlin Dolan, Kinsley Dolan, Dashiell Dolan Metts and Desmond Dolan Metts and four great-grandchildren, Grace Dolan, Lilly Dolan, Dylan Rabon and Isabella Rabon. Born on the 18th of March 1934 in Asbury Park, New Jersey to Helen B. Werling Dolan and Frank J. Dolan, Sr., Bob was a first-generation Irish-American. He survived four siblings, Rita Dolan, Helen B. Dolan Clark, Francis J. Dolan, Jr., and Donald J. Dolan. During his early years in Asbury Park and New York City, Bob developed his love for baseball and was a bat boy for the New York Yankees. At the height of WWII, his family moved to the Panama Canal Zone where his father was the manager of the Miraflores Lock on the Pacific Side of the Panama Canal. As a teenager in the Canal Zone, Bob spent his summers working at the Lock for his father and he was the paper boy to his future wife Sylvia Swift. When he graduated from Balboa High School, he returned to the United States where he earned an engineering degree from Oklahoma State. Soon after college, Bob married Sylvia in North Carolina, where he began working for the Argus Camera Company. Over the course of his engineering career, he worked for the RCA Company, Martin Marietta and NCR, while moving his family from North Carolina to Massachusetts and Florida, before settling in Irmo, South Carolina. When Bob retired from NCR, he and Sylvia moved to Naples, Florida. They enjoyed each other's company and traveled the world, but after many sojourns through Europe, Asia and Africa, they returned to South Carolina to be near their family in the Lexington area. Bob was a devoted husband and a hands-on father who coached little league and instilled the value of education. He loved piling the kids in the family station wagon and going on camping trips and spending the weekends at the beach. Bob will be deeply missed by his family and friends who remember him with a glass of scotch in his hand, his friendly smile and a wry sense of humor. Always up for an adventure, he would start his day by asking, "what's on tap?" The family requests that any memorials (cash or volunteer work) should be made to MSA Hospice at 166 Stoneridge Drive, Suite 100, Columbia, SC 29210, (803) 400-1177. Thompson Funeral Home of Lexington is assisting the family.