Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

Born Nov.14, 1920, in Cleveland, Mr. O'Donnell earned a bachelor's degree at Case Western Reserve University and graduated from Harvard Business School with a degree in industrial administration.

Before moving to Rhode Island in 1966, he worked for IBM as director of product development in the corporation's headquarters in Binghamton, NY. Prior to that, he worked in Ohio for the East Ohio Gas Company and also for a management consulting firm.

Mr. O'Donnell was active in the journalism industry, serving as a longtime board member and president of the New England Newspaper Association (NENA). He also served as a director of the Chronicle Printing Co., Jackson Newspapers Inc. and Sun Coast Media Group Inc.

"He was a button-down, IBM-type. I never saw him without a coat and tie on," Morley L. Piper, 84, the newspaper association's longtime executive director, said yesterday. "He was pretty formal, but a nice fellow and a kindly man."

Piper, who was executive director during Mr. O'Donnell's presidency in 1984, recalled Mr. O'Donnell's leading role in the 1981 merger of two industry groups, the New England Daily Newspaper Association and the New England Newspapers Advertising Bureau, to form the NENA.

Mr. O'Donnell's role at the Journal Company was no less influential, Piper said. "He was a well regarded, thorough businessman," he said. "He played a leading role in the growth of the paper."

In 1985, Mr. O'Donnell helped Fraser Lang start a small publishing company, Manisses Communications.

"Bud O'Donnell joined the business as an investor and director," according to Lang, now the co-publisher of the Block Island Times. "Until his health failed, he was deeply involved in our business, providing sage advice and unfailing support.

"Though formal in his outward appearance, Bud had an ability to talk with and relate to people from all walks of life."

Lang described Mr. O'Donnell as a man of decency and integrity, guided by a core set of moral principles.

Mr. O'Donnell, a Roman Catholic, was active in Catholic philanthropy, earning the designation of Knighthood in the Order of Malta. A member of the Agawam Hunt, Dunes Club and Hope Club, he also served as a trustee for the Rhode Island Historical Society, the Providence Preservation Society and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.

He and his late wife, Mary Rita, were the parents of two sons, Patrick, of Concord, N.H., and Robert, of New York, and two daughters, Mary Gilbane, of Newport, and Martha Rogers, of Providence. They had 12 grandchildren. His second wife, Rosemary, died in January.