Boston architect Robert T. Holloran, 89, left his mark on many institutions

ROBERT T. HOLLORAN

On the slopes of New Hampshire's Attitash Mountain, Boston architect Robert T. Holloran wore a parka made from wolf skins and skied every winter well into his 80s.

"He was pretty easy to spot on the hill," said his friend Robert Lee of Gloucester. "Bob skied with his friends every day until he just outlived them."

Mr. Holloran, who worked for the Boston firm Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson, and Abbott for almost 40 years, died Saturday at Maine Medical Center from injuries he suffered in a fall at his home in Jackson, N.H. He was 89.

He helped build New England Deaconess Hospital, Hartford Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital, Maine Medical Center, and Vassar College Library.

His most prestigious and complex work came in the 1980s when his firm was hired to unite disparate offices and museums of the Smithsonian Institution through spectacular underground spaces with above-ground entry pavilions. Mr. Holloran was project architect.

"He drove a hard bargain and he really cared about the quality and the ultimate craft in a building," said former colleague William Mead. "He insisted it always be the best all the time."

An avid outdoorsman, Mr. Holloran brought his architectural skills to the hiking trail and the slopes. In the 1960s, he helped develop Attitash as a premier ski area and designed the Appalachian Mountain Club's Joe Dodge Lodge and Visitor Center in Pinkham Notch.

"Bob had the skills to put up buildings that fit in with the landscape. He did it with style and taste that really fit the place and honored the traditions and the concerns people had," said Tom Deans of South Conway, N.H., a former executive director of the Appalachian Mountain Club who held several posts with the club from the 1960s to 1988.

The grandson of a Gloucester fishing captain, Mr. Holloran came to architecture through his father, Timothy F. Holloran. The men had their own Gloucester firm and designed an addition to Gloucester High School, a fire station, and the Beeman Memorial School in the city.

Mr. Holloran, whose mother was Eleanor (Burns), graduated from Gloucester High in 1936 and earned his degree in architecture from the Wentworth Institute. In 1950, he went to work for Shepley Bulfinch until he retired in 1989.

A Navy veteran of World War II, Mr. Holloran served two tours of duty in the South Pacific in the 140th Navy Construction Battalion.

He obtained the rank of chief petty officer.

In 1960, Mr. Holloran was one of two men from New England chosen to serve on the ski patrol for the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley.

The Olympics convinced him New England needed a first-class ski area, his family said. He helped develop Attitash, near North Conway, and served on its board of directors until it merged with the American Ski Company in the 1990s.

During his life, Mr. Holloran climbed all 48 peaks in New England measuring more than 4,000 feet and earned a spot in the mountain club's Four Thousand Footers Club.

He married three times. He met his third wife, Cynthia (Liberty) at Attitash when he taught her and a group of fellow nurses from New England Deaconess how to ski.

"He loved skiing. He loved boating. He loved architecture. He loved being able to make things happen, and he had just an incredible mind for detail," she said. They were married 11 years.

At age 70, Mr. Holloran decided to learn how to sail after decades of power boating. He bought a 37-foot sailboat and named it after his grandfather's fishing boat, The Oceanus.

"He was always on the go and he wanted a new challenge," said his friend Lee, who helped teach him to sail. "Most people are going the other way at that age."

For more than a decade, Mr. Holloran and his wife sailed up and down New England. At sunset, Mr. Holloran often sat on the deck of The Oceanus playing "Taps" on his trumpet.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Holloran leaves a daughter, Beth Bourguignon of Needham; a son, Timothy of Cumberland, R.I.; four grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. today in Greely Funeral Home in Gloucester. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery in Gloucester.