Hedley Donovan papers

Hedley William Donovan was born May 24, 1914 in Brainerd, Minnesota to Percy and Alice Donovan. In 1917, the Donovan family - Percy, Alice, Hedley, and his siblings David and Elizabeth - moved to Minneapolis. Donovan attended Stephen A. Douglas Elementary School, Jefferson Junior High School, and West High School, where he graduated in 1930. Donovan then attended the University of Minnesota from 1930-1934 and graduated magna cumme laude with a Bachelor of Arts in History. While in attendance at the University, Donovan was editorial chairman of the student newspaper, The Minnesota Daily, chairman of the Student's Forum and the Arts College Intermediary Board, and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Delta Upsilon fraternities. From 1934-1937 Donovan attended Hertford College at Oxford in England as a Rhodes Scholar.

From 1937-1942 Donovan served as a reporter for The Washington Post in Washington D.C. He was assigned to cover Capitol Hill and later the White House, for which he covered President Franklin Roosevelt's press conferences and other presidential activities.

From 1942-1945 Donovan served for the United States Naval Reserve as a Lieutenant Commander during World War II.

Upon the conclusion of his war service in 1945, Donovan returned to journalism as a writer at Fortune magazine, was promoted to Associate Managing Editor in 1951, became Managing Editor in 1953, and served in that role until 1959 when he was made Editorial Director of Time, Incorporated. Donovan remained director until 1964 when he was named by Editor-in-Chief Henry Luce to be Luce's successor. Donovan served as Editor-in-Chief of Time, Inc. from 1964-1978, for which he oversaw the publication of Time, Fortune, Money, Life, Sports Illustrated and People magazines, as well as the other divisions within the corporation.

Throughought his career at Time, Inc., Donovan was most influential in neutralizing the tone of company publications, a noted shift from his right-leaning predecessor, Luce. Notable changes under Donovan's leadership include suspending the publication of Life magazine in 1972, and launching People magazine in 1973.

Following his retirement in 1978, Donovan served as an advisor to President Jimmy Carter in 1979. Donovan devoted the remaining years of his retirement to writing and teaching. He published Roosevelt to Reagan: A Reporter's Encounters with Nine Presidents in 1985, which was a critique on the presidents he reported upon over the course of his editorial career. This was followed by an autobiography, Right Places, Right Times - Forty Years in Journalism, Not Counting My Paper Route: A Memoir, published in 1989. Donovan also taught at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Donovan married Dorothy Hannon on October 18, 1941 and the couple had three children: Peter, Helen, and Mark. Hedley Donovan died on August 13, 1990 in Port Washington, New York. In 1992, Donovan's children, sister Elizabeth Edmonds, along with the Time Inc. Foundation and the Henry Luce Foundation, established an endowed undergraduate scholarship in Donovan's name in the Department of History at the University of Minnesota.