Frances Cooper-Marshall Donovan was born in London in 1906 to Emma Watson and Raphael Cooper-Marshall. She attended school in London and Jamaica, and was enrolled in Brookline High School in 1921, while her father was in the United States on business. She studied government at Radcliffe College (A.B. 1928, A.M. 1932) where she was Class Marshall, president of student government, and president of the debating team. In 1931 she married James Donovan, a classmate from Brookline High and chemical engineer; they had two children: Andrew and James. Frances Donovan worked as assistant director of the Radcliffe Appointment Bureau (1928-1931); director of the Boston Volunteer Services Bureau from 1932-1941, during which time she earned a degree in social work from Simmons (S.B. 1937); and associate director of the Radcliffe College Admissions Office (1966-1971). The Donovans lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where Frances was on the board of the Cambridge Y.M.C.A. (1952-1958) and the Mount Auburn Hospital. She was president of the Friends of Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (1953-1956), and was on the board of that hospital and its successors after 1956. Frances Donovan was a member of the Radcliffe College Board of Trustees (1965-1979), president of the Radcliffe College Alumnae Association (1957-1959), and vice-president of the Radcliffe College Club of Boston (1953-1957). She was awarded the Radcliffe Alumnae Recognition Award in 1971 and the Harvard Alumni Association Award in 1991. Frances Donovan died in Cambridge in 1993.
From the description of Oral history interview with Frances Cooper-Marshall Donovan, 1985. (Harvard University). WorldCat record id: 232009822
