At the end of his freshman year, Dolan decided to enter the Society of Jesus,[3] proceeding to the Jesuit novitiate of St. Andrew-on-Hudson in Poughkeepsie, New York, on August 14, 1905.

On June 28, 1920, he was ordained a priest by Cardinal James Gibbons at Dahlgren Chapel of the Sacred Heart at Georgetown University.

[7] During Dolan's seven-year tenure at Fairfield University, the State of Connecticut chartered the school to grant degrees in 1945.

The State of Connecticut accredited the College of Arts and Sciences and the university held its first summer session of undergraduate courses in 1949.

In 1972, due to ill health, Dolan moved to the Campion Center, Weston, Massachusetts, where he died on August 1, 1977, aged 92.