Robert J. Donovan

Robert John Donovan, a veteran journalist and author, died on Aug. 8 from complications of a stroke. He was 90.
After graduating from high school, Donovan made $7 a week as a night copy boy for the Buffalo Courier Express. Four years later, he became a reporter for The New York Herald Tribune and covered city hall. During World War II, Donovan wrote for the armed services newspaper, Stars and Stripes, then went back to the Herald Tribune to report on national and political stories in Washington D.C. In 1963, Donovan was hired by the Los Angeles Times to man its Washington bureau.
Donovan covered five presidential administrations and broke many major news stories. He followed the 1948 Harry S. Truman-Thomas E. Dewey campaign, rode in the presidential motorcade in Dallas when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated and broke the story of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Vietnam in 1969 (his story was published before President Nixon had officially announced the event).
Donovan also wrote 13 books, including “PT-109,” a best-seller about President Kennedy’s war experiences. It was published in 1961 and made into a movie starring Cliff Robertson. Donovan’s memoir, “Boxing the Kangaroo,” was published in 2000.