ADELE DONATI

Adele Schmidt Donati, of New Canaan, Connecticut died peacefully on September 10, 2025 at the age of 92. Del, as she was known, was the daughter of Gertrude and Harry Schmidt and was born in Passaic, NJ. In 1954 she graduated from Skidmore College with a B.A. in art, and her college yearbook quoted, "Del: The might and majesty of loveliness. A true artist extending her talent from high fashion design to abstract and modern paintings. Ambition, determination, and talent. The Midas touch punctuating a season of bloom." In 1953 Del was one of 20 young women selected from 1,500 applicants to be a guest editor of Mademoiselle magazine in New York City. While there, Del was encouraged by one of the other winning contestants to show her paintings to the surrealist artist, Enrico Donati. Enrico was bedazzled by Del and after a long courtship, they were married in 1965. Del first worked as a package designer and an art director for a printing company in Manhattan. She later became the Creative Director of Houbigant, a French Perfume House and was responsible for design and development of new product lines. She was also in charge of the in-house agency which produced print and TV advertising for Houbigant's brands including Quelques Fleurs, Chantilly, Raffinee, Demi Jour and Lutece among others. Del was a passionate philanthropist, environmentalist, and animal rights advocate serving on the board of The Fund For Animals and The Humane Society Legislative Fund. Statuesque and sophisticated, Del was the embodiment of the Hitchcock blonde. Her sentences were punctuated with laughter and marbled with wordplay. She was master of the pun, and if there was a pen or pencil or crayon handy she would wield it. She could dash off your likeness in less than five minutes. She greeted guests with a camcorder before anyone knew what they were and delighted in getting them to regale her with a joke or recite an amusing anecdote. Even if she was "dressed to the nines," she would drop everything to rescue a stray cat or a pigeon with an injured wing. Her robust generosity and compassion touched countless lives. Del could have relied on her cinematic beauty, but she didn't. She wore it like a hat and left it at the door. Enrico Donati passed away in 2008, but Del is survived by her daughter Alyssa Alexandra Donati and her granddaughter Sophia Donati. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Wildlife In Crisis or Alley Cat Allies, two of her most beloved charitable organizations.