Phelan, William V. 'Bill'

William V. “Bill” Phelan, a longtime Iowa City resident and lawyer, died Friday, Aug. 23, 2013, at Lantern Park Nursing and Care facility in Coralville. Mass of Christian Burial will be held at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Iowa City at 3 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, with Father John Spiegel officiating. Friends may greet the family at St. Mary's during the one hour period preceding the services. Private family burial will follow the service.

Memorial donations may be made to Mercy Hospital Foundation, The University of Iowa Foundation, St. Mary's Catholic Church or to Iowa City Hospice.

Bill was born in Des Moines, Iowa on Sept. 2, 1922, the son of Vincent W. Phelan and Margaret (Quinn) Phelan. He attended grade school (first through eighth grades) at Farrar, Iowa (in northeast Polk County) and graduated from high school at Iowa Falls in 1939.

Thereafter he was employed and attended Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls part-time until he entered the U.S. Army at Camp Dodge, Des Moines, in 1942. His first post of duty was at Camp Cooke, Lompoc, Calif. From there he entered the Army Specialized Training Program at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Wis. His next Army assignment was on Oahu Island in Hawaii (then a territory of the U.S.). From there he saw service in various places throughout the Pacific area from Kwajalein Island to Hollandia to Leyte to Okinawa.

He was medically discharged from the Army in July 1945 and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame at that time. He graduated magna cum laude, first in his class and recipient of the Hoynes Award from the Notre Dame Law School in 1949. While in law school he was an assistant editor of the school's law review, the Notre Dame Lawyer.

Bill and Helen Elizabeth Schindler were married Oct. 21, 1950, in the Basilica at Notre Dame and began their residence in Iowa City in November 1950.

Bill was admitted to the practice of law in all state and federal courts in Iowa in June 1949. He entered the practice of law in Iowa City in partnership with Louis Shulman in 1950 and remained active in the succeeding partnerships to that practice until the time of his death.

He was a member of the Johnson County, Iowa State and American Bar associations and was a charter member of both the Iowa and American Hospital Attorneys associations, and served as president of the Johnson County Bar Association and the Iowa Hospital Attorneys Association. He served as a member of the Tax Committee of the Iowa State Bar Association for several years and was its chairman from 1975 through 1977. He was a life member of both the American Bar Foundation and the Iowa State Bar Foundation.

He was adjunct lecturer at the College of Law at the University of Iowa from 1955 until 1991, during which time he taught courses in insurance, income, estate and gift taxes, state and local taxation, probate practice and estate planning problems. He was co-author of the four-volume McCarty, Iowa Probate, 3d edition, and of the Workbook for Iowa Estate Planners. He was named in the first publication (1983) of The Best Lawyers in America and in each of the subsequent annual and biannual editions of that publication.

During the period of his active legal practice he served as the longtime (since 1953) legal counsel for Mercy Iowa City and its affiliate organizations and (since 1963) for the University of Iowa Foundation and its affiliates.

Bill served for six years on the board of directors of the Iowa City Community School District and as its president for 1968-69. He served as a two-term director of the Iowa City Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the B.P.O.E. of Iowa City and was a fourth degree member of the Knights of Columbus.

He served as a lay trustee of St. Thomas Moore Parish in Iowa City for over 30 years and was a member of the Board of Fellows of the School of Religion at the University of Iowa for over 35 years. He also served as a member of the board of directors of the Oakdale Research Park Corporation and of the Musser-Davis Land Co., affiliate organizations of the University of Iowa.

Bill is survived by his wife, Helen; two daughters, Margaret, a practicing attorney in Vancouver, Wash., and her husband, Terry Madison, and Mary of East Lansing, Mich., a professor of law at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and her husband, Nicholas D'Isa, an assistant inspector general, State of Michigan; one son, John, formerly vice president and general manager of KCRG-TV & Radio in Cedar Rapids and his wife, Mari; two grandchildren, Clancey Catherine D'Isa and Quinn Nicholas D'Isa of East Lansing, Mich.; one sister, JoAnn Little of Dayton, Ohio; and one brother, Richard F. Phelan of Rochester Hills, Mich.

He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother, James R. Phelan.

Bill's family would like to express appreciation to Mercy Iowa City, especially to Dr. Richard Larew and Dr. Richard Neiman, to Iowa City Hospice, particularly Larry and Torie, and to the Lantern Park Care Center staff, nurses and assistants for their excellent care.

Online condolences may be left for the family at.

Published Aug. 26, 2013, in The Gazette