John F. Donohue

John F. Donohue, a retired captain in the New York City Fire Department and a Chief Warrant Officer-3 in the U.S. Coast Guard reserves, passed away on Monday, Aug. 18, surrounded by his wife and three children in Viera, Fla. He was 88 years old.

Jack was born on Jan. 28, 1937 in Brooklyn, N.Y., to H. Frank and Florence Veronica (Doyle) Donohue. His father’s family hailed from County Roscommon, Ireland, and Jack embraced his Irish heritage and inspired his children to do so as well. His mother’s side of the family arrived in the United States from Ireland before the American Civil War, and she would often tell her sons, “We’re Yanks, not Irish.”

His father died in 1941, when Jack was just 4 years old. The family then moved to the Bay Ridge section of the borough, where Jack attended Our Lady of Angels Catholic School, of which he held fond memories through the years. He went on to attend Brooklyn Prep High School for two years, but his antics as part of the “BP Smokers Club” – apropos for the 1950s – led to “permanent JUG.” His teen years in Brooklyn were captured by his Brooklyn Prep classmate Kenneth Brown in the novel “The Narrows.” His mother eventually shipped him off to finish high school at Mount St. Joseph’s in Baltimore; he credited Mount St. Joseph’s for making him a better man.

Jack met the love of his life, Joan Moloney, in 1954, and he entered the U.S. Army in 1956, serving a tour of duty in Germany. After he was honorably discharged, he joined the FDNY in 1960 and married Joan that same year, before moving his growing family to Staten Island in 1964.

He rose to the rank of captain and worked in a series of firehouses in Brooklyn. Although a humble man, he was cited six times for heroism in the line of duty. Among those life-saving exploits were saving an abandoned sleeping baby from a crib in a burning apartment building, and aiding a fellow firefighter in the collapsed basement of a blazing toy store. A back injury, the result of falling three stories to the ground while fighting a fire in 1978, eventually forced Jack to retire from the Fire Department in 1980.

In 1973, Jack, enlisted as a reservist in the Coast Guard, where he found another career vocation to nearly match his first love of the FDNY. He spent 24 years in the Guard, based at Station New York, in the Reserve Assist Team at Governors Island, Floyd Bennet Field and Staten Island, and rising to the rank of Chief Warrant Officer. He retired in 1997.

Some 25 years after high school, encouraged by his wife, Jack went back to school, enrolling in Pace University to study accounting. He graduated with a B.S. in 1984 and used those skills for the next chapter of his career, working with his brother Frank at Vulcan Installation as the comptroller and business manager from 1982-93. He later combined all his experiences as the fire safety director at UJA-FEGS Home Attendant

Services, a nonprofit organization that assisted elderly and disabled people who required assistance with daily life.

While forging a successful career, Jack, a faithful Roman Catholic, also checked all the boxes as an attentive family man. He and Joan attended many live music concerts, especially after they moved to Lincroft, N.J., and they enjoyed time with their growing family at their homes on Long Beach Island and in the Poconos, in Pennsylvania. Later in life, they traveled often, most notably a three-month car journey around the United States and to numerous countries around the globe. Their favorite vacations, though, were those that included the entire extended family, often under one roof, during trips to the Jersey Shore, Maine, Ireland and Anna Maria Island.

When the children were younger, Jack could often be found driving them to school – often in a Volkswagen Beetle with a rusted floor – lift your feet in the rain! – helping Joan shuttle the girls to swim practice, or accompanying his son on Boy Scout trips. He never left the fire department behind as he often ‘followed’ responding fire units to working fires, with the family in the car.

In retirement, Jack and Joan moved to Viera in 2008. Beginning in 2009, he volunteered as a service officer for the Disabled American Veterans, helping veterans and their families obtain the benefits they earned. He was an early technology adopter, buying the family an Apple II computer in 1980. He kept that interest through his life, enjoying time on his computer, researching and recording his family history, and following the grandkids’ travels. And he had many laughs watching re-runs of “Seinfeld” with his wife and together applying the show’s catch phrases to real-life scenarios.

Jack and Joan, loyal friends to many, also cherished becoming familiar faces at a number of Viera eateries, especially the Grecian Garden Cafe in Suntree, exchanging updates with staff and fellow diners and lending a hand or a comforting ear in times of need.

Jack was predeceased by his parents and two brothers, Lenny and Frank.

He is lovingly remembered by Joan, his wife of 65 years; his daughters Christine Luttrell (Jim) and Joan Rice (Harry); and his son, John K. Donohue (Dawn McLane). He will forever be Popper to eight grandchildren: Meghan, Allison (Shane Baldwin), Kerry, Harry, Ashlyn, Clare, Aidan and Sara; and one great grandchild, Kayleigh.

Friends and family will be received at St. John the Evangelist Church in Viera on Wednesday, Aug. 27 at 10 a.m., with a funeral mass to follow at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be gifted to the Tunnel to Towers Foundation or the Space Coast chapter of the DAV, No. 123.