Myles Hannan

Myles Hannan, age 83, Senior Counsel and formerly a partner in the Greater Washington, DC law firm of Linowes and Blocher LLP, died on January 4, 2020.  Formerly of Bethesda, Maryland, he had been a resident of Bluffton, South Carolina since 2009.

Mr. Hannan, husband of Phyllis W. Hannan and son of the late Joseph A. Hannan, Jr. and Rosemary Edwards Hannan, was born in Rye, New York on October 14, 1936, the third of five children.  He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with an A.B. Honors degree in 1958 and from Harvard Law School with an LL.B. degree in 1964.  A Navy veteran, his three-year tour of duty in the Atlantic Fleet included serving as Aide and Flag Lieutenant to Rear Admiral James W. Davis, a Cruiser Division Commander, and he ended his naval service as a Lieutenant.

He began his legal career in 1964 as an associate with the New York City law firm Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft, where he specialized in mergers and acquisitions, corporate law and antitrust law, including the defense of criminal price-fixing cases.  In 1969 he became Vice President and General Counsel of High Voltage Engineering Corp outside Boston and subsequently headed the legal and real estate groups of Boston based The Stop & Shop Companies, Inc.  In 1984 he was named Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer of Empire of America Federal Savings Bank, a large Buffalo-based thrift with branches in New York, Florida and Michigan.  In 1992 he returned to the private practice of law, joining the Bethesda-based law firm Linowes and Blocher LLP where his practice for the next 27 years centered on commercial leasing and other real estate transactions in the Washington, DC metropolitan area.

While with High Voltage Engineering Corp., which held the Van de Graaf particle accelerator patents, Mr. Hannan handled a number of high-tech joint venture and licensing agreements with companies based throughout Europe and in Japan.  Included was a joint venture with a Japanese chemical company to produce irradiation cross-linked polyethylene products in Lawrence, Massachusetts one of the first Japanese joint ventures to be sited in the U.S.  His international practice also required that he go through Checkpoint Charlie at the Berlin Wall several times in 1971-72 [no, not Bridge of Spies!] to resolve a major contract dispute with a customer located in Dresden, in what was then the DDR or East Germany.  His opposite number in that negotiation was the Communist Party Secretary of the customer company.  At the time Senator Ted Kennedy was pressing for the U.S. to give diplomatic recognition to East Germany in return for East Germany’s permitting certain East German citizens to emigrate to the West.  When the contract dispute was resolved, working through Senator Kennedy’s office, he was able to have included in the list of East Germans permitted to emigrate from Dresden the fiancé of one of his company’s employees and enjoyed attending their wedding in Lexington, Massachusetts a year later. 

Mr. Hannan had served as a director of The Wentworth Institute in Boston, The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, and Buffalo’s Studio Arena Theatre.  He authored a number of articles on commercial leasing for various legal publications, including American Bar Association’s “The Practical Real Estate Lawyer”.  A member of the Bars of New York, Massachusetts, Maryland and the District of Columbia, he received the highest rating (AV(R) Preeminent (tm) from the Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Directory and was listed in “Who’s Who in America”, “Who’s Who in American Law” and “Who’s Who in Finance and Industry”.  A college varsity tennis player, he was proud to have led his 75-year and older tennis doubles team to the South Carolina Championship Tournament and to have served in 2015 as President of the Sun City Hilton Head 880-member Tennis Association.

Survivors are his loving wife of 17 years, Phyllis W. Hannan, his four children and her three children, and their combined family of 16 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren.  He leaves behind: Myles Jr. (widower of the late Lori L. Hannan) and their children Justin (Liz) and Melissa of East Bridgewater, Massachusetts; Paul F. (Nancy) and their children John, Rachel Cragle (Moses), Herman (Grace), Sergius and Patrick of Homer, Alaska; Thomas J. (Ann) and their children Grace and Blue of Webster Groves, Missouri; Kerry E. Hannan (Luke Milton) and their daughter Riley of Los Angeles; Kathleen (Knox) Hammond (widow of the late Timothy E. Hammond) and their sons Edward and Timothy of Carmel, Indiana; Kelly (Knox) Kraft (Jeffrey) and their children Jeffrey Jr., Robert and Marielle of Nashville, Tennessee; and James Knox (Kristen) and their children Connor and Alyson of Waxhaw, North Carolina.  He is also survived by his brother, Michael (Kathy) of Flanders, New Jersey, and his two sisters, Mother Mary Berchmans Hannan of Washington, DC and Susan E. Hannan of Lewes, Delaware, as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.  His marriage to Gretchen A. Phillips ended in divorce.

Predeceasing Mr. Hannan, in addition to his parents, were his first wife, Maureen Ronan, and a brother, Joseph A. Hannan, III.

An hour of visitation will be held at 1:00 p.m. on January 7, 2020.  A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at Saint Andrew Chapel (220 State Rd S-7-50, Bluffton, SC 29909,) at 2 p.m.  A reception will follow.  Interment in the Beaufort National Cemetery in Beaufort, South Carolina will be private.  In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, 1275 York Avenue, New York, New York 10065.

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