The Honorable Richard M. Nolan, former U.S. Representative from the State of Minnesota, to be recognized as the 2025 Legacy Memorial Honoree
Brainerd, Minn. – The Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation’s Board of Directors is proud to announce the Honorable Richard M. Nolan as the 2025 BLACF Legacy Memorial recipient. This award posthumously honors a person for leading a life with a purpose that was bigger than themselves, leaving a legacy fueled by stewardship and generosity. Nolan’s legacy will be celebrated at the Awards in Philanthropy event to be held on July 17, 2025, and the public is welcome to attend by getting tickets at communitygiving.org/events. Executive Director, Terri Foster of the Community Foundation, shared, “Rick Nolan understood that relationships, living with integrity, and lifting others up is probably the purest form of love and likely the reason that he was so respected and successful in every area of his life. A job well done, for sure; he will be missed, and his impact will continue for years.”
A Brainerd native and former business leader, Richard Nolan was born and raised in Brainerd and later became a social studies teacher in Royalton. Nolan was a US Representative, serving six terms in Congress, separated by a break of 32 years. Despite the break in his political career, his passion and desire to listen to understand and help his fellow community members was something he did so naturally throughout his life. Many political and business colleagues have shared similar sentiments around Nolan’s genuine interest in really wanting to get to know and understand others and his ability to bring people together through connections and with his inspiring speeches. He got his first taste of politics as an assistant to then-U.S. Sen. Walter Mondale, and he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives in 1968. “Always look out for the little guy,” his dad advised him, and Rick took that lesson in stride, representing all residents and classes. “He was a fighter for the middle class, for senior citizens, for students, for the poor,” said Jeff Anderson, a former employee. “But he didn’t lose sight of the fact that he also represented miners and loggers and farmers and went to work every day trying to represent their interests, too.”
Throughout his long career in politics and business, Rick remained firmly grounded in the beautiful lake country of northern Minnesota. His contributions to the Brainerd Lakes Area include, but are not limited to, working as an Initiative Foundation lecturer, and serving on the board of Northern Pines Mental Health Center, Rosenmeier Forum, and as the former Board President of the CLC Foundation. He has also been recognized for his philanthropy by joining the Brainerd High School Hall of Fame, receiving the Outstanding Forest Steward Award, and being recognized with the Joan and Walter Mondale Award for Public Service. He loved Mary, his wife of more than forty years, and the life they made in the north woods. With family and friends, they hunted, fished, planted thousands of trees, harvested wild rice in the fall and gathered maple syrup in the spring. He was happily involved with his family – grown children Mike, Leah, John and Katherine(deceased) and sister Mary Pat. Rick thought nothing of driving several hundred miles to catch a football or basketball game or a performance featuring any of the 13 grandchildren who were his pride and joy. Rick lived a life filled with an equal measure of accomplishment and love. Nolan has deep roots in the Lakes Area and through his family, fueled by his stewardship and generosity, leaves a long legacy on the importance of service and giving back, to the natural resources he helped plant and preserve, to his community through his efforts with stewardship that helped to create hope and change that may forever change the trajectory of individual lives but also the communities in the Lakes Area and beyond.
Since 1998, the Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation has been helping people make a difference through charitable giving. Invested charitable funds may allow donors to give more to their favorite charitable organizations now and simultaneously help grow endowed resource funds to meet the ever-changing local community needs of today and tomorrow. With many types of funds available, everyone can support their favorite cause with an individual, business, general interest, or scholarship fund. Together, the Community Foundation and fund partners have awarded nearly $11 million in grants to nonprofits. As a trusted community leader, the Community Foundation staff and volunteer board of directors are committed to understanding community issues and bringing together necessary resources to address those needs and opportunities. We can help keep money local and doing good in the place we all love – creating impactful and lasting change by engaging people, connecting resources, and building community. Brainerd Lakes Area Community Foundation is a partner with other community foundations of CommunityGiving, a collaborative network to create efficiencies, control costs, and offer best-in-class tools for growing local community foundations and maximizing donor impact.
