Wayne resident Patrick J. Nolan VI — long-time professor of American literature at Villanova University and an Emmy Award-winning writer — has died at 88, writes Gary Miles for The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Nolan had entered Villanova planning to become a lawyer. But by his graduation in 1955, he had lost that desire and found himself adrift. He decided to join the Navy, where he realized that he could turn his reading and writing hobbies into a career. He decided to start teaching literature and professionally writing.

“It seemed a good way to combine a vocation and an avocation,” he said.

His decision kicked off five decades of exceptional writing and teaching.

In 1979, he received an Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing in a Limited Series or a Special for The Jericho Mile, the story of a prison inmate’s run for the Olympics.

As his success and fame grew, he continued living with his family in Wayne.

“No Hollywood Tinseltown stuff for us,” he said.

Nolan, who got a doctorate in philosophy from Bryn Mawr College in 1973, also collected art and enjoyed running, swimming, skiing, and playing tennis.

Read more about Patrick J. Nolan in The Philadelphia Inquirer.