In the 1970s, Thomas R. Donovan proudly served as Mayor Richard J. Daley’s patronage chief — doling out jobs that were the lifeblood of the city’s Democratic machine.
It was an era that gave Chicago politics the well-worn expression, “We don’t want nobody nobody sent.”
Patronage wasn’t a dirty word yet. It was just how things worked.
The federal court-ordered Shakman decrees, which made the long-held practice illegal, were still a few years away.
“Daley made the final decisions on whether a particular ward got X number of jobs, and which ones, but Donovan lined up the requests and sent out the orders,” said Dick Simpson, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Chicago and a former alderman who led a machine opposition bloc after his election in 1971.
When Mayor Richard J. Daley died in office on Dec. 20, 1976, Mr. Donovan was chief among the Democratic heavyweights who anointed Michael Bilandic his successor.
A mostly pliant City Council voted Bilandic in as acting mayor until a special election could be held six months later, which Bilandic won.
Bilandic was a status quo leader who ensured the way things were under Daley would remain.
“Donovan linked up elements of the business community and the elements of the Democratic Party who were loyal to the Bridgeport-centered Daley machine, who basically agreed that Bilandic wasn’t going to rock the boat too much,” Simpson said.
Mr. Donovan remained as patronage czar and adviser in the Bilandic administration.
Bilandic occupied the mayor’s office on the fifth floor of City Hall and received all the accompanying attention of ribbon cuttings and presiding over City Council meetings, but Mr. Donovan, it was said, was the backroom political broker to whom people in the know turned to for favors.
A 1977 Chicago Daily News story headlined “Meet the man who controls the patronage” opened with the lines: “One of the most influential men in City Hall these days is a quiet unassuming former construction worker from Bridgeport named Thomas R. Donovan. He is not well known to the majority of Chicagoans, but anyone who wants a favor from the mayor’s office knows Donovan is the one to turn to.”
Mr. Donovan left the mayor’s office after Bilandic lost the 1979 mayoral contest to Jane Byrne — a defeat many attributed to discontent over Bilandic’s failure to clear the roads when a blizzard buried Chicago in snow just days before the election.
Mr. Donovan took a job as secretary at the Chicago Board of Trade. In 1983, he became CBOT’s long-serving president and chief executive officer.
Mr. Donovan died Sunday. His family did not share a cause of death. He was 88.
Mr. Donovan was born Sept. 13, 1937, and was raised in Bridgeport.
He graduated from De La Salle Institute and took classes at the University of Illinois’ Navy Pier campus while working toward joining the glaziers union, whose workers install storefront framing and glass. He worked at Hamilton Glass Co. from 1956 to 1964, after which he took a job in the Chicago Park District’s maintenance department.
In 1969, he got a job in the accounting office of the Department of Streets and Sanitation. The commissioner at the time, James McDonough, impressed by Mr. Donovan, mentioned him to Mayor Daley, which quickly paved the way for a job in City Hall.
Mr. Donovan soon found himself the beneficiary of a reshuffle of personnel in the mayor’s office that led him to become patronage chief.
Attending night classes, Mr. Donovan earned his bachelor’s degree in business and economics from the Illinois Institute of Technology in 1972 and a master’s degree in public administration from the school in 1975.
Mr. Donovan was also the founding chairman of Quantum Crossings, a company that provides security, technology and electrical services.
Mr. Donovan is survived by his wife, Vita Donovan, sons Kevin Donovan and John Thomas Donovan and his three children, and two grandchildren.
A visitation will be held from 3-9 p.m. Friday at Robert J. Sheehy & Sons Funeral Home in Orland Park.
A funeral Mass will be held at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Alexander Parish in Palos Heights.