Nolan and his wife, Cindy, have six children and live in South Jordan, Utah. Nolan worked for Sandy City for 31 years as the Sandy City surveyor. Additionally, he worked a side practice surveying for individuals all over northern Utah, primarily in the Salt Lake and Tooele Valleys.  He has been in land surveying for over 46 years.

Nolan began his surveying career in 1977, working for Rollins, Brown, and Gunnell — starting as a chainman and rodman. He worked all over Utah and Wyoming, and did a lot of residential subdivisions in Provo and Orem. They also built dams, designed and did survey work. He realized how much he enjoyed working outdoors and decided to continue with this field of work. In 1979, a civil engineer left RBG and started his own company, Thurgood and Associates. Taking Nolan with him, they did a bunch of work for Robert Redford around his house near Sundance. They had to survey the line between Redford’s property and the national forest, running up a 25-foot rod over the tree line so they could drive in T-posts. 

From April 1980 to 1987, he worked at Ludlow Engineering in Nephi — he was the main surveyor there in a small family-owned business. When the recession hit, they found work in Payson, Arizona, staking highways. They would be down there for two weeks at a time, living out of an office. They would sleep on the floor in sleeping bags, getting up at 3 a.m. so they could start working right when it was light enough to see through the instrument. This was because it was so hot, and they would be done for the day by 2 p.m.

In 1985, Nolan became a licensed surveyor. During his time with Ludlow, Nolan’s wife Cindy was sending out resumes all over the country. He started getting job offers from Florida, North Carolina, Vermont and Martha’s Vineyard. 

In November 1987, he accepted a job in Virginia with a man named Granville Hogg. It was a small survey business with three employees. He hired Nolan as his top surveyor, mainly doing boundary surveys and subdivided waterfront property on the bay side — pretty, little coves, very green, hot and humid. He never could get dry. In January 1990, he moved to Westminster, Maryland, to work at Harris, Smariga and Matz (today known as Harris, Smariga and Associates), an engineering company in Baltimore, Maryland.

In June of 1991, he moved back to Virginia. Granville offered to make Nolan his partner. But when he left the first time, Granville had closed down. So, when Granville wanted to start up again, all their clients had gone somewhere else. He stayed there for few months and then decided to move on. In October of 1991, he moved back to Utah, and he went to work for Sandy City.

Meanwhile, while working at Sandy, he also ran his own small family business on the side. He started doing side work in Tooele County in the summer of 1992, using his kids to go out and work on Saturdays.

In 2004, Doug Kinsman, serving as the elected county surveyor for Tooele County, was deployed for military service in the National Guard. During his deployment, Nolan was appointed to fill in as the county surveyor. This arrangement began in February 2004, with Nolan working 10-hour days at his primary job in Sandy and dedicating half-days on Fridays to Tooele County.

When Doug returned from his service, he requested Nolan to continue working with the county. Nolan accepted this request and maintained his work for Tooele County until 2022.

After 31 years, he retired from Sandy in March of 2022. Upon retiring from his position in Sandy, Nolan immediately transitioned to a new role at the Bureau of Reclamation. His tenure with the Bureau began just a few days following his retirement, and he continues to be actively employed there to this day.