Donal Celsus Paul O'Connell

Community Activist and Retired Local Real Estate Finance Executive

Upon his 2008 retirement from a 32-year career in commercial real estate finance, Donal O’Connell turned his energies toward contributing to local community affairs. At the time of his death, Donal was President of the Sumner Citizen’s Association. In that capacity, he was a key member of a core team of community leaders who over the last two years negotiated with the National Intelligence Community to undertake a major redesign of the 37 acre $500 million Intelligence Community Campus under development in the neighborhood. The National Capital Planning Commission said the broad, positive results achieved were unprecedented. He was a member of the Development Advisory Committee of WAMU radio, which is the national public radio affiliate for the Nation’s Capital; and of the Board of CLASP, an international nonprofit organization with a mission to serve as the primary resource and voice for appliance, lighting and equipment energy efficiency standards. He served as Board member and Treasurer of the Little Falls Watershed Alliance and took delight in leading teams of young people in cleaning up parks and streams that so as to reduce pollution of the local environment and the Chesapeake Bay. He also mentored students who had received scholarships from the Hispanic College Fund.

Before his retirement, he was a Managing Director at the D.C. office of Columbia National Real Estate Finance from 1992 to 2008. Previous mortgage banking experience included executive roles at First Union Mortgage Corporation, and Randall H. Hagner & Co.

Donal earned a Masters in City and Regional Planning from Harvard University, and a Bachelor of Architecture Degree from University College, Dublin. He was an active member of numerous professional associations, including the Mortgage Bankers Association of Metropolitan Washington; the Real Estate Group of Washington DC; and the Urban Land Institute. He was also a Member of the Lambda Alpha Society, an honorary professional society on land economics.

Donal was born in Ireland in 1949, moved to the United States in 1976 and to the Washington area in 1978. He was well known for his sharp wit, storytelling and a knack for a wry comment in his lilting Irish broque, helping defuse tense business negotiations, community conflicts, or the pain from a bad soccer pass made by one of the kids he coached. He is survived by his wife of 35 years, Katherine Sierra, former World Bank Vice President for Sustainable Development and current non-resident Senior Fellow at Brookings, and traveled widely with her. He leaves behind two children, Christine who is working toward her Phd in tropical ecology at the University of Minnesota, and Brian, an economic consultant living in San Francisco.