Donovan, James B. (James Britt), 1916-1970

Burial: Saint Agnes Cemetery, Lake Placid, Essex County New York

<p>James Britt Donovan (February 29, 1916 – January 19, 1970) was an American lawyer and United States Navy officer in the Office of Scientific Research and Development and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS, predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency), ultimately becoming general counsel of the OSS, and an international diplomatic negotiator.</p>

<p>Donovan is widely known for negotiating the 1960–1962 exchange of captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and American student Frederic Pryor for Soviet spy Rudolf Abel, and for negotiating the 1962 release and return of 9,703 prisoners held by Cuba after the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion. Donovan was portrayed by Tom Hanks in the 2015 feature film Bridge of Spies.</p>

<p>Dr. James Britt Donovan, the lawyer and educator who ar ranged the trade of a Soviet spy for the U‐2 pilot Francis Gary Powers and negotiated the ransom of prisoners taken by Cuba in the Bay of Pigs invasion, died early yesterday. He was 53 years old.</p></p>

<p>Dr. Donovan, who had been president of Pratt Institute since Jan. 1, 1968, entered Methodist Hospital in Brooklyn last week for treatment of influenza. He suffered a heart attack at 2 A.M. Monday. His home was at 35 Prospect Park West in Brooklyn.</p>

<p>For 16 years after his admis sion to the New York Bar, Dr. Donovan's successful legal prac tice kept him well out of the limelight. But in 1957, his ap pointment as defense counsel for Col. Rudolf Ivanovich Abel, the Soviet spy, catapulted him into the public eye.</p>

<p>Between the Abel case and his job as the president of Pratt, Dr. Donovan:</p>

<p>Negotiated the exchange of Colonel Abel for Mr. Powers and Frederick Pryor, an American student;</p>

<p>Wrote a book about the ex perience called “Strangers or a Bridge” (New York: Athene um, 1964);</p>

<p>Arranged the release from Cuban prisons of 1,163 survivors of the B<p>ay of Pigs invasion, of nearly 5,000 relatives of the survivors and other political prisoners, and of 35 Americans and their families detained on various charges;</p>

<p>Ran an unsuccessful race in 1962 as a Democrat for the Senate seat of Jacob K. Javits, New York Republican;</p>

<p>Served on the Board of Ed ucation, to which he was ap pointed in 1961, first as vice president and then as president.</p>

<p>Dr. Donovan's approach to these assignments was unortho dox and highly personal. He once compared his brand of unofficial diplomacy to playing poker: “You have to know your man and be willing to risk all.”</p>

<p>In a letter to Dr. Donovan after the release of Mr. Powers, President Kennedy called the character of the negotiations “unique.” Fordham University, in conferring an honorary de gree in 1962, used the word “metadiplomacy” to describe his style of negotiating “beyond diplomacy.”</p>

<p>Dr. Donovan entered the public arena as an unpopu lar figure, the defender of the highest ranking Soviet intelli gence agent ever tried in the United States. Although he was appointed to the task by a committee of the Brooklyn Bar Association, Dr. Donovan was subjected to abusive tele phone calls and letters ad dressed to “the Commie lover.”</p>

<p>He said he had accepted the assignment “as a public duty,” and donated his $10,000 de fense fee to the law schools of Fordham, Columbia and Harvard Universities.</p>

<p>Colonel Abel was found guilty of conspiracy in 1957 and was sentenced to 30 years in prison and fined $3,000. But before sentence was passed, Dr. Donovan had asked that the possibilities of future ex change of condemned spies with the Soviet Union not be eliminated by the taking of Abel's life.</p>

<p>His plea was to prove pro phetic when, five years later, Abel was returned to the Soviet Union in exchange for Mr. Powers.</p>

<p>The last chapter in the Abel story was undertaken by Dr. Donovan in secret, at the re quest of the United States Gov ernment. After Mr. Powers's U‐2 plane was shot down in the Soviet Union, his father sug gested the exchange. At the same time, Abel's wife was pleading with Dr. Donovan to secure clemency for her husband.</p>

<p>As a result, the Justice De partment authorized Dr. Dono van to go to East Berlin to “explore the situation.”</p>

<p>The story leading up to the cold and cloudy February day in 1962 when the prisoners were exchanged is told in Dr. Donovan's hook. The sequel came some months later, when Colonel Abel, knowing of his lawyer's extensive collection of illuminated manuscripts, sent him two 16th‐century legal volumes, “with gratitude.”</p>

<p>Several months after his suc cess with semi‐official negotia tions in the Soviet Union, Dr. Donovan was asked by the Cuban Families Committee for the Liberation of Prisoners of War to argue their case with Premier Castro. In this case, however, the negotiations were entirely unofficial.</p>

<p>For months, Dr. Donovan shuttled between New York and Havana where, he said, “Castro and I talked about everything under the sun; I found him rather fascinating fellow.”</p>

<p>The visits continued during the missile crisis of September October, 1962, and by December an exchange of prisoners for baby food and drugs was ar ranged. The men were released on Christmas Eve, 1962.</p>

<p>Between flying trips to llavana, the State Democratic party nominated Dr. Donovan as its candidate for the Senate in 1962. To the despair of party workers, Dr. Donovan cam paigned like a man with more important things on his mind. Senator Javits won by 975,000 votes.</p>

<p>Dr. Donovan continued the flying trips through the spring of 1963, holding all‐night con versations with Premier Castro that eventually brought the re lease of a total of 9,700 Amer icans and Cubans from Cuban jails.</p>

<p>In December, 1963, the burly, white‐haired lawyer was elected president of the Board of Edu cation. He had been appointed in 1961 when a “reform” board was created by the State Legislature.</p>

<p>He became involved in con troversy from the day he be came president. Civil rights' groups said that Dr. Donovan was not committed to integra tion. He said he was committed, first, to education.</p>

<p>When the school system an nounced preliminary plans for correcting racial imbalance, the program was severely criticized and Dr. Donovan, as president of the board, drew most of the fire.</p>

<p>The controversy grew hotter when nearly 45 per cent of the city's school children stayed home in a concerted boycott.</p>

<p>By mid‐March of 1964 civil rights groups had joined in an effort to force Dr. Donovan's removal or resignation. How ever, he replied that he had no intention of leaving and eventually the campaign died quietly. His re‐election as pres ident was considered a vote of confidence by his fellow members.</p>

<p>At Pratt, Dr. Donovan, like so many of his fellow educators in recent years, had to face campus disruptions over black students' demands and antiwar protests.</p>

<p>At first he threatened to have rested and expelled any stu dents who committed vandal ism or denied others access to classes or incited nonstudents to action. After the 400‐member faculty went on strike to pro test the Donovan policy, he modified it.</p>

<p>In recent months Dr. Dono van had encouraged student membership on Pratt's admin istrative council and had begun discussions designed to lead to a new student‐faculty senate.</p>

<p>Dr. Donovan was born in the Bronx on Feb. 29, 1916. His father was a prominent sur geon and the family's roots in New York City go back to 1837. An only brother, John D. Donovan Jr., a lawyer and New York State Senator, died in 1955.</p>

<p>The younger Donovan was educated at All Hallows Insti tute, Fordham College and Har vard Law School, which last year awarded him a Doctor of Jurisprudence.</p>

<p>His early ambition was to be come a newspaperman and he took his first job in 1940 with a New York law firm that had a large number of newspapers as clients.</p>

<p>But Dr. Donovan said he soon became irretrievably “hooked” in the practice of law. He left private practice in 1942 to be come associate general counsel of the United States Office of Scientific Research and Devel opment, handling legal matters relating to the development of the atomic bomb.</p>

<p>In 1943, he entered the Navy as an ensign. By 1945 he was a full commander who had won the Legion of Merit, Commen dation Ribbon and other decor ations.</p>

<p>During this period he was general counsel to the Office of Strategic Services, the war time intelligence agency com manded by the late Maj. Gen. William J. (Wild Bill) Dono van. They were not related.</p>

<p>As associate prosecutor at the International Military Tri bunal at Nuremberg, Dr. Don ovan was in charge of all vis ual evidence.</p>

<p>He was general counsel for the National Bureau of Casual ty Underwriters. In 1951, with Thomas Watters 3r. and Myron Cowen. he formed the law firm of Watters, Cowen & Dono van.</p>

<p>In 1961, Dr. Donovan was in vested as a Knight of Malta by Cardinal Spellman.</p>

<p>He leaves his wife, the for mer Mary E. McKenna, and four children, Mrs. Edward L. Amor osi, John, Mary Ellen and Clare: and two grandchildren.</p></p>

<p>A funeral mass will be of lewd Thursday at 10 A.M. in ??</p>