His wife said that he was especially proud of his decades-long work as a trustee at St. George’s and as his graduation class’ representative.
In 2007, St. George’s gave him its Howard B. Dean Award, one of two awards given to alumni, this one for service to those beyond the school.
“The school was his life,” his wife said. His family was returning from a summer visit to England when the teenage Mr. Donaghy found his father dead in their cabin on the Queen Elizabeth. “They had already enrolled him at St. George’s,” she said, so the school became part of the healing process.
Mr. Donaghy earned a bachelor’s degree in 1950 at Yale, where he was a member of the Fence Club, the Haunt Club, and the Book and Snake.
He began his career at Delaney & Co., an industrial adhesives firm in Northeast Philadelphia founded by his mother’s father. He began as an apprentice, his wife said, and “the next year he was president.” The firm was sold in 1957, and he began in 1959 at PNC, where his work involved estate and financial planning.
He was a board member of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children and of the Seamen’s Church Institute of Philadelphia and South Jersey. He was a member of the Sons of the Revolution.
Mr. Donaghy was a member of the Racquet Club in Philadelphia, the Merion Cricket Club, and the Gulph Mills Golf Club. In Vero Beach, Fla., he was a member of Riomar Country Club and the Moorings Club. He was a member of the U.S. Senior Golf Association and the Prouts Neck (Maine) Country Club.
Besides his wife, Mr. Donaghy is survived by a son, Edwin C. III; a granddaughter; and a great-grandson.
A memorial service was set for noon Monday, May 21, at the Church of the Redeemer, 230 Pennswood Rd., Bryn Mawr.
Contact Walter F. Naedele at 215-854-5607 or wnaedele@phillynews.com.
