Thomas J. Donahue

Mr Donahue caught me going up the Dow staircase because I would be late to class otherwise! He told me to see him after school. That was an interesting way he handled his unofficial `detention´. I was invited to a Serra Club meeting one Thanksgiving weekend while in the seminary and was his guest along with another seminary candidate! He was a nice guy when you saw beneath his sometimes gruff surface at school! My condolences to his family. I just found out he had passed!

To all who wrote notes of remembrance for Mr. Donahue, Sir thank you. He would be pleased that you had such fond and funny memories. You made his family realize all the more how much he will be missed.

Sincerly,
Maureen (Sir's sister)

Mr. Donahue, I took three years of Latin with you and today it is not the Latin that I recall. It is OZYMANDIAS by Shelly that you made all of us memorize. Your classes were about so much more than the Gallic Wars and the suprise latin vocabulary quizzes. You wanted to know us as young adults--but made sure that we knew we were just humble students starting out on a long journey.

Thank you Sir.

Josh Abrams (Class of 1980)

Dear Maureen & family: We were sorry to hear of Tom's passing. He was a wonderful person. We're so glad we were able to see him at his birthday party.

John & Dorothy Reidy

"Quam bene vivas refert, non quam diu."
The important thing isn't how long you live, but how well you live.

To Mr. D;
Thank you for everything. Thank you for your teaching, your wit, and your kind words through the years. Knowing you outside of my High School years was the greatest pleasure. Salve Magister!

"Qui dedit benificium taceat; narret qui accepit."
Let him who has done a good deed be silent; let him who has received it, tell it.

Sir,
I would like to thank you for your teachings and support. Our city of Holyoke is a much better place for having you as one of its cherished sons.

Mr. Donahue was what all exceptional teachers are: a model, an inspiration and an enduring influence. The Latin might get rusty but the life lessons stay with us. And I have passed on to the younger teachers whom I mentored his basic belief that the teacher was always right. I always believed what he said.

I don't think I've ever thought about my years at HHS without dwelling on the friendship, discipline and thought-provoking questions provided by Mr. Donahue, Sir. ("Do you love Latin, son?)
Jim Fleming, Class of 1965

I can only echo the sentiments of the many who knew Mr. Donaghue and wrote in this guest book. He was not only a teacher but a friend of every student with whom he came in contact at HHS. However, I can't help but wonder . . . when the call came . . . did he use the UP staircase or the DOWN staircase?

Ed Nowak '61