Kevin F. O'Donnell

Kevin F. O’Donnell, a devoted father and retired MTA telephone maintainer, died of chronic heart disease on Wednesday at Staten Island University Hospital. Born in Queens, Kevin was brought to South Beach as a child where he would forge lifelong friendships and attended Holy Rosary Elementary School. He graduated from St. Peters Boys High School and then the College of Staten Island.

During his first year of college, Kevin was a passenger in a car that was involved in a fatal accident that resulted in him being hospitalized for seven months – two of which in a coma - that left him having to relearn how to walk and talk again. Despite the obstacles, Kevin was able to return to CSI graduating with an associate degree in electrical engineering.

Kevin had 30-year-career as a telecommunications engineer with various banks and brokerages in the Wall Street financial district, and later AT&T at the Teleport on Staten Island. In 2014, he joined the MTA as a telephone maintainer where he serviced telephone and communications systems throughout the NYC subway system including stations, tunnels, enclosures and buildings. A member of Local 100, he retired from the MTA in 2022.

Since childhood, Kevin was always interested in seeing new places and meeting and learning about new people – he could make a telemarketer hang up just by asking 1,000 questions of them about where they were calling from and what the weather was like there. As a child of Irish immigrants, Kevin enjoyed trips with his parents and older brother and sister to the Emerald Isle to visit family. After recovering from his car accident, Kevin did a solo whirlwind trip of Europe staying at hostels along the way before returning to college.

In 1987, Kevin met the former Diane Siravo on the Staten Island Ferry en route to his job as a telecommunications tech at JP Morgan in lower Manhattan. The two would later marry, and he would become a doting stepdad to Lauren Siravo. The couple would also have a son, Kevin, and a daughter, Janine. A lover of classical music and ballet, Kevin made sure that his daughters would study dance. He also saw to it that his children were exposed to other types of music, such as punk, new wave and jazz and art, everything from graffiti on the subways to Monet at the museum.

An avid guitar player, Kevin passed on his passion to his namesake son. While recovering from a stroke in 2019 at Staten Island University Hospital, occupational therapists were able to fine tune his motor skills and help him recover through bar cord drills on the guitar.

In addition to his children and ex-wife, Kevin is survived by his sister Joan, brother-in-law Richard Daniele, nieces Caroline and Isabel Daniele, and nephews Seamus and Aidan O’Donnell. He is predeceased by his brother Jimmy, and parents James and Joan O’Donnell.