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Originally published in the Winter 2018 Issue of �޻���ֱ�� Business magazine.

For Rita Donahue, a recent donation to the �޻���ֱ�� School of Business carried a special significance. The wife of the late Joseph Donahue ‘35 VSB, Mrs. Donahue made a $500,000 gift to establish the Joseph and Rita Donahue Endowed Scholarship Fund, which provides financial support to academically talented students in VSB. The fund was inspired by the Donahues’ nearly 50-year friendship with the Rev. George F. Riley, OSA, ’58 CLAS, who shared the couples’ devotion to helping others.

Mr. and Mrs. Donahue met Father George Rileythrough mutual friends in 1970. At the time, Mr.Donahue was president and CEO of Connelly Containers in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and Father Rileywas the vice president of University Relations overseeing Development, Public Relations and Alumni Affairs. Father Riley invited Mr. Donahue to join the University’s Development Counciland from there, a friendship grew out of shared values and a mutual commitment to serving the University’s mission.

Over the years, the Donahues made a variety of contributions to the University. Mr. Donahue worked closely with the late Dean Alvin Clay to support the College of Commerce and Finance, to which he attributed much of his success. As a Board member of the Connelly Foundation, he also played an instrumental role in securing several gifts for the University. He joined the University’s Board of Trustees in 1982, where he remained actively involved for over a decade. Today, Donahue Hall on South Campus bears the family’s name along with a room in St. Mary’s Hall that reflects his mother’s name. It’s also rumored that Mr. Donahue anonymously paid the tuition for several qualified students.

The fund was inspired by the Donahues’ nearly 50-year friendship with the Rev. George F. Riley,OSA, ’58 CLAS, who shared the couple’s devotion to helping others. In a complementary way, Father Riley also dedicated himself to �޻���ֱ�� and the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of �޻���ֱ��. Over the course of his nearly 60-year career, he taught ethics and contemporary religions, served as the University’s first liaison to the newlyestablished Peace Corps, and worked as the secretary for the Augustinian Province, which at that time has oversight of a university, two colleges, six high schools, and many parishes in theUnited States, Cuba and Japan. Most notably though, Father Riley spent 20 years as vicepresident of University Relations and played a major role in several highly successful capital campaigns involving the building of the Connelly Center and the athletic Pavilion.

Father Riley and the Donahues remained close and socialized regularly until Mr. Donahue’spassing in 1996. In his eulogy for his friend, Father Riley aptly quoted Winston Churchill, saying“We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what wegive.” Through this scholarship,Mrs. Donahue commemorates two lives well lived.

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