Robert Alan Donovan

1921 - 2021

Robert Alan Donovan died peacefully on March 6, 2021. He was born in Chicago September 27, 1921 to Dorothy Dickey Donovan and John Elmer Donovan. The second of five children, he was raised in Kirkwood, Missouri. He married the late Hope Taussig, also of Kirkwood, in 1942. Almost immediately after their marriage, he left for military service in World War II. He served in the Army in England, France, and Germany. While in England he was able to spend time exploring London and attending many superb theatre performances. This experience was a life changing one for him, and he followed up his military service by studying English literature at the University of Chicago on the G.I. Bill. He received his Ph.B degree in 1948 and his M.A. in 1950. He went on to receive a Ph.D. in English literature from Washington University in St. Louis in 1953. From there, he taught at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY for nine years and in 1962 took a job at what was then called the State University of New York at Albany. He was well regarded as both a teacher and a scholar. His book, The Shaping Vision: Imagination in the English Novel from Defoe to Dickens, was published by Cornell University Press in 1966. He also published numerous articles in a variety of professional journals. And he served as the English Department's Director of Graduate Studies in the 1970s, and then its Chair in the 1980s. During his first sabbatical leave from SUNYA he took his family to England for the academic year. He did research on the pre-Raphaelite painters at the British Museum and the London Library. But the family also found time to travel around the British Isles and Europe. His wife Hope always said it was the best year of their lives, particularly as all three of their children could be with them. He retired from the university in 1991 but continued teaching through OASIS, UCALL, and the Schenectady County Public Library. He often said his eight years leading the Great Books program at SCPL was the most rewarding teaching he ever did. Also in retirement he and Hope did a great deal of traveling. In addition to being a teacher, a scholar, and a traveling man, Bob was a family man. His children all have fond memories of the nightly routine of being bathed and then read to. During bath time he would sing old songs from World War I. The books he read were varied and ranged from the Winnie the Pooh stories to the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, complete with appropriate voices and accents for all characters. He also made up stories; a particular favorite was a series of tales about a skinny cowboy named Ropey Jim. His children remember with gratitude and awe the extraordinarily strong sixty- year marriage Bob and Hope had. They survived a three year separation during his military service overseas, beginning in the earliest months of their marriage. And they also survived a cancer diagnosis Bob received in 1958. His father arranged an experimental treatment for him, using cobalt radiation. Bob was one of the very first people to survive his type of cancer. He is survived by his three children (Faith Donovan, Peter Donovan, and Brian Donovan) and by six grandchildren (Caitlin West, Grace and Hugh Donovan, and Larissa, Trevor, and Ariadne Donovan) and by two great-grandchildren (Logan Castonguay and Brigid Callagan). He is also survived by son-in-law David West, daughter-in-law Anastasia Donovan, and by two of his siblings, William P. Donovan and Dorothy G. Donovan. He was predeceased by his parents, his wife Hope, his brother John Richard Donovan and his sister Mary Elizabeth Donovan. He received exceptional care at the end of his life from Gateway House of Peace and from Hospice. He was a long-time resident of the Glen Eddy in Niskayuna, having previously lived in Guilderland for 41 years. An anatomical gift has been made to Albany Medical College.