Paul Vincent Donovan

His Excellency Paul Vincent Donovan
Province	Detroit
Diocese	Kalamazoo
Installed	July 21, 1971
Term ended	November 22, 1994
Predecessor	See Established
Successor	Alfred John Markiewicz
Other posts	Bishop Emeritus (1994-2011)
Orders
Ordination	May 20, 1950
Consecration	July 21, 1971
Personal details
Born	(1924-09-01)September 1, 1924 Bernard, Iowa, U.S.
Died	April 27, 2011(2011-04-27) Wayland Township, Michigan
Nationality	American
Denomination	Roman Catholic Church
Motto	To Serve Rather Than Be Served

Paul Vincent Donovan (September 1, 1924 – April 27, 2011) was a bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Kalamazoo in the state of Michigan from 1971 to 1994.

Biography

Born in Bernard, Iowa, Donovan was ordained a Catholic priest for the Diocese of Lansing (where he had moved with his parents, attending St. Mary Cathedral High School) on May 20, 1950. His seminary studies had been at St. Joseph Seminary in Grand Rapids, Michigan, St. Gregory Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Mount St. Mary Seminary in Norwood, Ohio. On June 15, 1971 Pope Paul VI named him the first bishop of the newly created Diocese of Kalamazoo. He was consecrated on July 21, 1971 by Cardinal John Francis Dearden of Detroit. The co-consecrators were Bishops Alexander M. Zaleski of Lansing and Michael Joseph Green of Reno.^[1] He choose as his episcopal motto: "To Serve Rather Than Be Served."^[2] He was the diocesan bishop in Kalamazoo for 23 years, retiring in 1994 for health reasons.

Bishop Donovan, 86 years old, was found dead on Thursday, April 27, 2011, outside of his vehicle following a minor accident in Wayland Township. According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, his car had, in darkness, blundered into a shallow pond. He managed to extricate himself from the car, and to reach a concrete pad some yards away, where he evidently sustained a heart attack. Foul play was not suspected. Allen Henry Vigneron, the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, Michigan, was the principal celebrant at the Wednesday, May 4, 2011 Funeral Mass in the Diocese of Kalamazoo's St. Augustine Cathedral. Robert C. Morlino, Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin, was the homilist. The Funeral Mass was also attended by Archbishop Vigneron's immediate predecessor, Adam Joseph Cardinal Maida, the retired Cardinal Archbishop of Detroit. Burial followed at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kalamazoo.

References