Ray Donovan
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Raymond James Donovan (born August 31, 1930) is a former United States Secretary of Labor.
Donovan was born in Bayonne, New Jersey, and attended Notre Dame Seminary in New Orleans, Louisiana. He worked as a union laborer in summers and received a B.A. in philosophy. Donovan went on to work for the American Insurance Company and Schiavone Construction Company, becoming the Vice President in charge of labor relations, finance, bonding and real estate in 1959. In 1971, he became Executive Vice President of Schiavone Construction Company.
President Ronald Reagan appointed Donovan as U.S Secretary of Labor on February 4, 1981, and he served in this office until March 15, 1985. Under his secretaryship, he reduced the department's staff and budget, granted regulatory relief to businesses through changes in Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) enforcement practices, revised the Davis-Bacon rules, modified Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) rules, created new industrial home work rules, and revised the federal compliance regulations.
In a highly publicized 1987 case, [1] Donovan and six other defendants were indicted by a Bronx County, New York grand jury for larceny and fraud in connection with a project to construct a new line for the New York City Subway. The Schiavone Construction Company was obligated to subcontract part of the work to a minority-owned enterprise. The essence of the charge was that because the minority owned firm (Jo-Pel Contracting and Trucking Corp.) leased equipment from Schiavone, that it was not truly independent of Schiavone. On May 25, 1987, Donovan (and all of the other defendants) were acquitted, after which Donovan was famously quoted as asking, "Which office do I go to to get my reputation back?" [2]
Donovan is part owner of Fiddler's Elbow Country Club.
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| Preceded by Ray Marshall |
United States Secretary of Labor 1981–1985 |
Succeeded by William E. Brock |
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