Rhode Island College

Paul Donovan played basketball and soccer while an undergraduate at Rhode Island College from 1946-51. He played professional baseball in the St. Louis Cardinals organization (’46-’51, ’54) and in the Baltimore Orioles organization (’55). Donovan spent two years in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1951-53.

Donovan recently retired after 44 years as an interscholastic baseball coach, spending the past 18 seasons at Moses Brown School. The Quakers posted a 16-0 record and won the SENE League under his guidance in 1984. He also coached for 28 years at Hope High School in Providence. He is a 1999 inductee to the Hope High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He received the Rhode Island Baseball Coaches’ Carl Toti Memorial Award in 1989 and the Rhode Island Baseball Umpires’ Ed Jansen Award in 1996. He was also an assistant coach for football, indoor track, and basketball.

As an educator, Donovan taught at Hope High School from 1957-83, serving as the Head of the English Department from 1972-83. He moved on to Moses Brown in 1983 where he taught English until his retirement in 1996. He was named the Rhode Island Teacher of the Year in 1973. Donovan earned his bachelor’s degree in education from RIC in 1951 and his master’s in secondary education in 1967.

He hails from the Fox Point District of Providence and is a 1946 graduate of La Salle Academy.