William A. Honan, Jr:

Loving Husband And Father,

Former Funeral Home Proprietor

Will Be Missed By Community

William A. Honan, Jr, 85, husband of Jeanne (Craffey) Honan of Newtown, and the former proprietor of Honan Funeral Home, died Saturday, May 2, at Danbury Hospital.

Mr Honan was born in Danbury Hospital on November 9, 1923, a son of Margaret (Hayes) and William A. Honan, Sr.

A lifelong resident of Main Street, he graduated from Newtown High School, Providence College, and The New England Institute of Anatomy and Sanitary Science. He joined the Navy in 1942 and served in the Pacific Theater as a pharmacist mate.

Mr Honan married the former Jeanne Craffey in Boston in 1947. That same year he joined his father in operating Honan Funeral Home. Mr Honan held memberships in both the Connecticut and National Funeral Directors Associations. He became the owner of Honan Funeral Home upon the death of his father in 1966.

He also owned and operated Newtown School Bus #4 for many years, and was a clerk at the Hawleyville Post Office.

Mr Honan was a lifelong communicant of St Rose of Lima Church, where he served for many years as an usher and assistant sexton of St Rose Cemetery. He was a life member of Virgilius Council #185, Knights of Columbus.

Active in many civic organizations, Mr Honan was a charter member and past president of Newtown Lions Club, where he was also a Melvin Jones Fellow and a Knight of the Blind.

Members of Newtown Lions Club were saddened to hear of Mr Honan’s passing, said Lions President Thomas Evagash.

“Mr Honan was the lone, remaining founding member of our club. Over 60 years, he was involved in every aspect of our club, doing a lot of work,” said Mr Evagash, who added that even in later years, Mr Honan volunteered to sell tickets for the annual car raffle and duck race. The William Honan Award (formerly the Trull Award now awarded to a NHS Leo member), given out each year by the Lions Club to two Newtown High School juniors recommended by counselors and teachers, will now be known as The William Honan Memorial Award, said Mr Evagash. “We will miss him,” said Mr Evagash.

Mr Honan was a longtime member of the Men’s Literary and Social Club of Newtown. From 1960 to 1974 he served as a member of the Newtown Park and Recreation Commission and was its chairman for ten years. He served on the Newtown Board of Finance from 1974 to 1976, and in 1975 was elected to the town’s first Legislative Council. He served on the council for six terms and was the chairman from 1978 to 1982.

Mr Honan also served on the Edmond Town Hall Board of Managers and on the board of the Housatonic Area Regional Transit (HART). He was also a former trustee of Newtown Savings Bank, served as a driver for Meals on Wheels for 20 years, and was a former member and chairman of the Newtown Democratic Town Committee. He was one of the first volunteer drivers for Newtown Ambulance Association.

Newtown First Selectman Joe Borst said on Monday morning that he had known Mr Honan as a Legislative Council member, town bus driver, and politically active resident.

“He was a very active person, he gave back to his community,” said Mr Borst. The two men belonged to different political parties, but were friends, Mr Borst said, adding, “I really respected him. He was a nice man, a pillar.”

Despite Mr Honan’s many volunteer positions, his greatest joy and proudest role was that of husband for more than 61 years and as father to eight children who survive him: Daniel Honan and his wife, Colleen, of Newtown, John (Jack) Honan of Newtown, Joan Bohlin of Dennis, Mass., Maureen Honan of Torrington, Eleanor Callanan and her husband, John, of Burdett, N.Y., Patricia Carey and her husband, Thomas, of Westport, Rita Crana and her husband, Paul, of Danbury, and Bridget Loughney and her husband, Michael, of Hong Kong.

He is also survived by 11 grandchildren, Christopher Bohlin, Katie Waters, Shannon Schamel, Neil Callanan, Meaghan Carey, Michael Carey, Brian Carey, Eileen Honan, Patrick Honan, Molly Loughney, and Daniel Loughney. Three great-grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews also survive Mr Honan.

He was preceded in death by his three sisters, Dorothy Fitzsimmons, Marian Espy and his twin, M. Eleanor Honan; and by a son-in-law, Albert J. Bohlin.

A Mass of Christian Burial is scheduled in St Rose of Lima Church on Friday, May 8, at 10:30 am. Interment will follow in St Rose Cemetery. Calling hours were scheduled at Honan Funeral Home, 58 Main Street in Newtown, on Wednesday, May 6, and also on Thursday, May 7, from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 pm.

Memorial contributions may be made to St Rose of Lima Memorial Fund, 46 Church Hill Road, Newtown CT 06470, or to the scholarship in Mr Honan’s memory through Newtown Scholarship Association, PO Box 302, Newtown CT 06470.

The Newtown Bee        May 8, 2009