TIMOTHY S. DONOVAN

TIMOTHY S. DONOVAN age 74. Beloved son of the late Ann G. (nee McFadden) and Sylvester Donovan; brother of the late Kevin; beloved cousin and dear friend of many. Passed away unexpectedly on August 13, 2025. Tim was a proud 1969 graduate of St. Ignatius High School and Cleveland State University. Tim and his longtime friend, Tom Yablonsky, collaborated on many community projects throughout Greater Cleveland. Relatives and friends are invited to meet on SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, AT 11:30 A.M.for a Memorial Service at St Peter Church (1533 E. 17th St. Cleveland, OH. 44114) A reception is planned and everyone is invited to celebrate the exemplary life of Tim Donovan at The Irishtown Bend Tap Room at the Market Garden Brewery, 1849 W. 24th St. Cleveland, OH. 44113.  Burial will be private at Holy Cross Cemetery.   Memorial contributions are suggested to Canalway Partners P.O. Box 609420 Cleveland, OH. 44109.

Cleveland.com wrote:

Tim Donovan, who led Canalway Partners for three decades and championed the vision of transforming a neglected canal into one of Northeast Ohio’s most beloved recreational assets, died Wednesday in Cleveland. He was 74.“His vision, expertise, tenacity, and ability to collaborate paved the way for a trail system that has forever improved the quality of life in northeast Ohio,” Canalway Partners said in announcing his passing.When Donovan became executive director of Canalway Partners in 1990, the Ohio & Erie Canal was a polluted and overgrown relic. As he recalled in a 2019 Cleveland Magazine profile, , “People have fallen in love with the Towpath Trail,” but at the start, the idea of walking or biking alongside the canal drew skepticism. The group had just three board members and $10 in its treasury.From those humble beginnings, Donovan helped turn that $10 into more than $50 million in funding for the Towpath Trail extension, according to a 2019 News 5 Cleveland story. That careful, methodical planning helped connect Cleveland’s lakefront to Zoar, Ohio, along a route that passes through four counties and countless landscapes.County Executive Chris Ronayne, who was formerly Cleveland’s planning director and later served on the Canalway Partners board, recalls Donovan’s determination to acquire the land – much of it through heavy industrial areas - needed for the last 5.5 miles of the trail’s northern section from Harvard Road to the Flats.Donovan understood the canal once connected Cleveland to the world and, being of Irish ancestry, felt a kinship with the Irish immigrants who were among those who did the digging.“Tim was the greatest interpreter of Cleveland history that I know,” he said.During a ribbon-cutting for the northern section in 2021, Grace Gallucci, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, called the Towpath Trail “a type of restitution for the damage done to neighborhoods” by highway construction. She said NOACA invested $34 million into the project — more than any other infrastructure effort in the agency’s history — “and we could not have done that without Tim.”She called the bike and pedestrian pathway a critical addition to the region’s transportation network.Alongside the Towpath, Donovan spearheaded community-building events and environmental projects, including RiverSweep, which became Ohio’s largest single-day river cleanup, transforming hundreds of acres into parks and trails. He co-founded Take a Hike, offering guided tours through Cleveland’s neighborhoods, and launched Cleveland History Days.A lifelong Clevelander, Donovan grew up on the city’s West Side, his father dug ditches for the gas company and his mother worked as an Ohio Bell operator. Donovan graduated from St. Ignatius High School and Cleveland State University. He loved long bike rides, sometimes tackling 50-mile round trips along the Towpath to Akron.Donovan’s public service included a long tenure on the Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals. Even after personal financial struggles in 2014 drew public scrutiny, he retained the trust of many civic leaders.In his later years, Donovan planned to step into a senior adviser role at Canalway Partners, envisioning Canal Basin Park at the northern terminus of the Towpath Trail as both a family-friendly green space and a wonderous nighttime gathering spot, he told Cleveland Magazine.Along with the completion of the Towpath Trail, Donovan considered having Congress recognize the Ohio & Erie Canalway as a National Heritage Area as his proudest moments, according to Canalway Partners.“We are saddened to lose Tim Donovan,” said Mera Cardenas, current executive director of Canalway Partners. “His commitment to Canalway Partners and his enthusiasm for sharing Cleveland’s history was unmatched.”Ronayne, who became friends with Donovan saw that passion firsthand many times. He remembers having a beer with Donovan at the Flat Iron Café in the Flats, when he mentioned that someone they both knew was leaving town, prompting Donovan to pound his fist on the bar and say, “Why would anybody leave Cleveland?”