James A. Donnellon, O.S.A.
(1906-1971)
Twenty-fifth President
1954-1959
Father James Donnellon was
born in Niagara Falls, New York, in 1906, and was raised in Lawrence,
Massachusetts. He graduated from Augustinian Academy, Staten Island, in 1924
and from Villanova College in 1930. He pursued his theological training in
Washington, D.C. at Augustinian College, and the Catholic University, and
was ordained a priest in June 1932.
Father Donnellon received an M.S. and a Ph.D. in Biology from the
University of Pennsylvania in 1936 and 1938, respectively. He also did
graduate studies at Harvard Medical School and at the Marine Biological
Laboratory at Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Father Donnellon taught Biology at Villanova College, where he was also
chairman of the department at Fordham University. In 1954 he was named
president of Villanova College. In June 1959 he was elected Provincial of
the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova and served in that capacity until
1965. He was then appointed Prior of the Augustinian Monastery at Villanova.
Father held many professional memberships, as a member of the advisory
Panel of the Joint State [of Pennsylvania] Government Commission of the New
York Academy of Sciences, and of the International Biometero Logical Study
Commission. He received honorary doctorates from La Salle College,
Philadelphia; Merrimack College, North Andover, Massachusetts; and Saint
Joseph's College, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Father Donnellon
died on 11 April 1971 and is buried at Calvary Cemetery, West Conshohoken,
Pennsylvania.
Source: Necrology of the Augustinian Provinces of the United States
of America
(Revised, May 2000).
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