Donahoe, Dorothy M.

DOROTHY M. DONAHOE

1911-1960

By W. Harland Boyd

Dorothy M. Donahoe, a native of California, was brought as a child to Bakersfield in 1914. She was less than a year old when polio had left her a cripple on crutches and braces until she was a teenager. She as an honor graduate of the Kern County Union High School, where she was active in forensics and the yearbook. Following graduation, Dorothy worked as a high school secretary from 1928 to 1935 and as the registrar from 1935 to1953.

Among Dorothy’s civic interests were the Kern County Musical Association and the Kern County Philharmonic Society. She was a board member of the Bakersfield Society. She was board member of the Bakersfield Community Theater, and a charter member of the Y.W.C.A. She was active in the Bakersfield Business and Professional Women’s Club, and she was the state president of that organization in 1950-1951. She participated in several Governor’s Conferences on the problems of aging, employment, small business, youth, civil defense, and western mining. She was given national recognition by the United States State Department for her role as chairman of the Kern County Women’s Division of the Speaker’s Bureau in bond drives during World War II.

Probably Dorothy was best known for her political activities with the Democratic Party. She was a member of the Executive Board of the Kern County Democratic Women, and with strong support from the Democratic Party and the and the Business and Professional Women’s organization, she won election to the California Assembly where she served as an assemblywoman from the 38^th District from 1953 until her death in 1960.

As a legislator, Dorothy was known affectionately as “The Voice of Humanity.” Her committee assignments related to education, ways and means, social welfare, manufacturing, and oil and gas. For her work as a legislator, the Los Angeles Times, in 1959, named her the “Woman of the Year.” While serving as chairman of the Education Committee, she helped develop the landmark Master Plan for Higher Education in California. In it, the roles of University of California, State Universities, and the Community Colleges were defined. The master plan was adopted by the legislature in Sacramento soon after death in 1960. Her legislative colleagues appropriately called the measure the Donahoe Higher Education Act. On the fifteenth anniversary of the adoption of the legislation, Dorothy Donahoe, described as a “courageous and unyielding” champion of educational reform, was remembered in the naming of Donahoe Hall on the campus of California State University, Bakersfield.