Richard Donahue, Nike’s president in the early 1990s, has passed away.
Donahue, a Massachusetts trial lawyer and confidant of the Kennedy political dynasty, was appointed Nike’s president and COO in 1990. At the time, the company was facing a boycott organized by the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson over the company’s alleged poor recruitment of minorities.
Georgetown University basketball coach John Thompson Jr., a longtime Nike consultant, soon became the first black member of Nike’s board of directors.
Donahue stepped down in 1994 yet remained vice chairman of Nike’s board until 2008.
Donahue was better known for grassroots organizing that spurred John F. Kennedy’s rise in the 1950s and early 1960s from congressman to senator to president. He held the title of assistant to the president upon Kennedy’s election but resigned from the White House in mid-November 1963 for a more lucrative private practice back in Lowell. He left a week before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
A Washington Post article detailing his obit is here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/richard-donahue-presidential-aide-who-became-nike-president-dies-at-88/2015/09/16/8db0753e-5c89-11e5-8e9e-dce8a2a2a679_story.html
