Donovan, Jeremiah Joseph, 1910-1992

Jeremiah Donovan, SJ, was born on June 18, 1910, in East Kingston, NH, to Mary Tobin Donovan. He had five older siblings: Mary, Katharine, Margaret, James, and Patrick. Donovan graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1931 and entered the Society of Jesus the same year, then spending two years at St. Andrew’s novitiate in Poughkeepsie, NY. He studied philosophy and theology at Weston College, where he was ordained a priest in 1942. Prior to ordination, he taught psychology at Boston College for two years. From 1945 to 1948, he taught classics and German at Fairfield University Preparatory School, and the same two subjects later at the College of the Holy Cross. He was named dean of men at Holy Cross in 1950 and was appointed minister for the Jesuit communities at Holy Cross and Shadowbrook in Lenox, MA, from 1955 to 1959. Donovan joined the Boston College faculty as a professor of theology and Hebrew in 1959, and taught at BC until 1975. He continued to tutor in Hebrew long after his formal retirement. Donovan died on January 30, 1992, of a pulmonary illness at Campion Center in Weston, MA.