Alumni Dinner Honorees 2009

Mark Donahue ’74

University of Michigan College Hall of Fame football coach Bo Schembechler considered Mark Donahue ’74, his favorite all-time lineman. That alone places Mark in rare company, considering how the Wolverines were one of the best teams in the country under Schembechler, who reached 200 victories faster than any other major college coach, besides Tom Osborne and Joe Paterno. Mark’s accomplishments as “one of the finest pulling guards ever to play at Michigan,” and one of the few to have ever been honored as a two-time Consensus All-American, also puts him in rarefied air.

And yet in one way, it is because Mark has been anything but rarefied or scarce, that he we put the spotlight on him tonight. Instead, Mark has been always available, never looking for personal glory, but always looking to support Brother Rice in particular and Catholic education in general.

Soon after Mark’s football career ended after two years as a regular guard for the Cincinnati Bengals in 1978 and 79, Mark began supporting his high school alma mater. As one of the earliest members of the Alumni Association, Mark ran smokers and helped establish Brother Rice softball as perhaps the best alumni league in the Chicagoland area. Even during a hiatus when he lived away from Chicago, Mark remained in support of Brother Rice, only to return as an active softball player and supporter of virtually all things Brother Rice, first back to the Alumni Board, and later in accepting his current position on the school’s Board of Directors.

Mark grew up down the street from Brother Rice, so he and his friends began hanging around the school when they were in grade school, a habit he continues today as if he still lives a block away, even though he now lives on the North Side. His decision to attend Rice was as natural as his unwavering support of the school, as he always remained close to his alma mater, even when living in Colorado. Mark’s mom, Mary Donahue, was the receptionist at Brother Rice for over twenty years since he graduated, so even while in Denver, he always felt like he was just a block away.

“I appreciated so many things about Rice!” said Mark. “The faculty was great-not only as teachers but as mentors. Tom Mitchell, Joe Johnston, Joe Bergmann, Ed Bara, Ed “Doc” Staron, Frank Klutcharch, the many Brothers back then. I could go on and on. Heck, I had a great young brother as a French teacher – Brother Walczak. Academically, Rice was a great experience. I wasn’t the greatest student when I started, but really enjoyed my classes. Brother Rice influenced my decision to major in social studies at the University of Michigan and prepared me for a college curriculum,” Mark added.

Mark refers to an “esprit de corps” established with his fellow students at Rice, and how much he appreciated, not only his circle of friends, but also how he found “everyone at Rice to be friendly and supportive.” To the surprise of no one who knows Mark, these are qualities that everyone finds in him.

“Years later many of the guys I grew up with still got together to play softball,” Mark said. “I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that our team, the Redeyes, won the Brother Rice softball championship the year we turned 50, although we did have some guys in their 40’s for speed,” Mark added.

“Mark is another alumnus who if you spend any time with him, he makes you feel like you have been hanging around with him all your life,” said Alumni Director Jim Casey ’70. “When he returned to Chicago after Colorado, he immediately started coming to Alumni Association meetings, while attending and sponsoring everything we hosted throughout the year, every year, while also attending every dinner and more basketball and football games than we can count. I learned from guys who knew Mark then, that he was the same way during the early years as a volunteer, right after he was in the NFL,” Casey added.

Throughout his adult life, while living in Colorado for eleven years, and then back in Darien, as an insurance executive supporting his family and Catholic school community wherever he went, Mark felt he was not only helping his sons (Tim at Regis High School in Denver, and Mike at Montini in Lombard) “get started in life,” but also helping promote their schools by sharing what he learned at Brother Rice about how to build and maintain success throughout their lives. “Our alumni are great family men, leaders in their communities and business, doctors, lawyers, etc., and in general, make a very positive contribution to society,” Mark said. “That’s why I support Brother Rice. We need to keep that going,” Mark added.

Mark’s amazing attendance and sponsorship record would earn him consideration for Man of the Year, but he doesn’t just show up and send checks, he also loves to make the calls. He works the phones for Brother Rice like he is part of the Institutional Advancement Team, making the golf outings, dinners and career days that much more successful. He’s another classic Church Builder, like the men and women throughout the Church’s history in America, who knocked on doors or made countless calls from their living room desks, asking for support for something in which they deeply believe.

Yes, Mark’s unwavering dedication to Catholic education and to Brother Rice earns him tonight’s Men of the Year award, and therefore an induction into the Alumni Hall of Fame, but there are no illusions of grandeur attached to this award. For Mark, the work he does and will continue to do for Brother Rice is a natural extension from his appreciation for the spirit of his alma mater, and from his inspiration from the volunteer work his parents did throughout their lives, and his wife Kathy does today. As a former All-American for a major university, Mark has been given many choices to do grand things with his time and money. More than any other worthy cause, Mark chooses Brother Rice, as naturally as if he were still walking to school from his home a block away.