ALUMNI IMPACT

Chris Donohoe ’85

Musician and Philanthropist

During his four years at Saint Francis, acclaimed indie singer/songwriter Chris Donohoe ’85 never played an instrument or sang. Yet he recalls in vivid detail the moment and place on campus when music became his calling.

Chris Donohoe ’85

“I was always moved by music but never performed,” recalls Chris, who describes himself in high school as a shy swimmer. “One day when I was a senior, there was a band of juniors playing after school next to a bank of classrooms. Watching and listening to them had me wishing I had the courage to be up onstage singing.”

Chris was captivated. “To see them making music together – they were playing ‘Rio’ by Duran Duran, I remember – that moment stuck with me.” While studying economics at the University of California, Davis, Chris picked up a guitar and taught himself to play a few tunes, even wrangling a lead singer spot for a fraternity band. Still, for the musician who released his first of now-nine albums in 2009, music was nothing more than a hobby.

For the next 12 years, Chris worked as an on-air TV weatherman and reporter. “Weather was always interesting to me, and I took atmospheric science classes at college,” he explains. After a local weatherman visited one of his classes, Chris sent out tapes and soon had a job as a production assistant at a Los Angeles TV station. In the evenings, he picked through the Beatles’ catalog on a used, cheap Ovation guitar. Next was learning guitar riffs on a Stratocaster and amp.

His guitars and growing passion for music were constant companions as his broadcasting career took him to stations across the country – and not-so-coincidentally close to music meccas. Nearby Chris’ first on-air weatherman job in Florence, Ala., was the late, legendary Muscle Shoals Sound Studio where Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Cat Stevens, Lynyrd Skynyrd and others recorded. At his next job at a station in Bakersfield, Calif. – the adopted hometown of Buck Owens and the birthplace of the “Bakersfield Sound” – Chris took his hobby to the next level with songwriting.

He joined the West Coast Songwriters Association to develop his craft. “I discovered that I had a knack for it,” says Chris, who also was trying to figure out how to turn his love for music from hobby to career. In 2000, he met renowned music publisher and Grammywinning songwriter Liz Rose at the West Coast Songwriters Conference.

“I played her some of my songs, and she said you should come to Nashville and play for publishers,” he recalls. For seven years, Chris made monthly trips to Nashville from the Bay Area, plugging his songs and trying to break into country music – all while continuing to work in broadcasting

and raising four kids with his wife, Robin, a venture capitalist.

Calling this time period his “graduate school for songwriting,” he networked with musicians, songwriters and producers and worked with co-writers. “I had some close calls pitching songs for other artists, but what I discovered was my own voice,” Chris says. “I decided in 2007 to write, record and produce my own music.”

Since his 2009 debut album, What Drives You, Chris has released a project a year. He records his albums with top session players and close friends in Nashville. “I don’t write about cars and girls,” he quips. He defies labels and embraces different genres, writing indie, rock and folk’ish. Chris even recorded with a flamenco trio during his family’s yearlong move to Madrid in 2009. His work seeks to find meaning in life’s big themes – love, joy, family, gratitude and loss. His 2011 album, March, explores his grief following the death of younger brother Terrence Donohoe ’89 from progressive multiple sclerosis.

“My producer calls it ‘music for grown-ups,’” Chris says. “How do we walk through life with grace and what does this mean? It took me a long time to get my arms around the importance of music for me in my own life.”

This year, he completes his tenure as board chairman of Little Kids Rock, the largest music nonprofit in the country that advocates for public school music programs. He’s been on the board since 2010 and is passionate about the transformative role of music, especially for children in underserved communities: “Music has a way of connecting people like nothing else.”

Chris is just as passionate about the Holy Cross tradition of service. “I remember going down to Agnews State Hospital to take the residents to Mass,” he says. Service was an important part of his Catholic upbringing and his high school experience. (His other siblings Sarah Donohoe Sands ’83 and twins Matthew and Martin Donohoe ’87 also attended Saint Francis.) “Saint Francis planted in me to find meaning in service to others. It’s one of the most meaningful messages a school can impart.” classrooms, changed air filters and repaired sprinklers, often alongside the Brothers of Holy Cross. After school, he washed dishes at the Brothers’ house. “I was part of the community year-round and felt a certain pride in that,” he recalls.

The Donohoe Family Band

In his songs and in person, Chris embraces all the notes that comprise his life.” I want to live a purposeful life,” he reflects. “I am grateful and want to earn the grace I’ve been given.”

Today, he and Robin also serve the medical research community through philanthropic work to find a cure for frontotemporal dementia (FTD), an often misdiagnosed group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain’s frontal and temporal lobes. When his mother-in-law died of FTD in 2007, the Donohoes made a gift to FTD research at the University of California, San Francisco. “At the time, there was very little research being done, and our gift created a consortium of researchers,” he explains. That consortium became the Bluefield Project (bluefieldproject.org), a nonprofit founded and chaired by Robin, with Chris serving on the board.

Bluefield has funded over 26 investigators who’ve screened nearly 500,000 compounds, published more than 100 papers, and trained over 50 scientists in FTD research. “It’s the leading effort in the field and has pushed basic scientific research for this orphan disease,” Chris says with great pride. “There are 25,000 cases of FTD annually, and it’s getting better and better understood due to the work the investigators have done.”

He laughs that his kids, who range in age from 14 to 20, have a decidedly different musical upbringing than their father. In addition to growing up seeing their father write in his in-home basement studio, Chris insisted that they have music lessons through eighth grade. On Memorial Day, the Donohoe family co-hosts an open-mic music festival at Robin’s sister’s Marin County home. All six Donohoes play in what he calls Family Band, and each year he teaches his wife a new instrument. “We play covers, not my songs, and I let the kids choose,” he adds.

During a recent performance as the lead singer of Yes Men, the wittily named cover band of Chris’ fellow fathers and husbands in his neighborhood, it came full circle: his first musical aha! moment in Mountain View, combined with living a life of service and seeking meaning in melodies and lyrics. “We play ‘Rio’ as part of our set, and there I was singing the song I heard that day at Saint Francis,” Chris says proudly. No word yet if that performance sparked someone else’s musical journey.

Visit chrisdonohoe.com to hear his music and learn more.

from the archives

Br. Francis Robinson, C.S.C., taught religion, math and science

Brotherly Love:

Brothers of Holy Cross

In 1955, four Brothers of Holy Cross founded Saint Francis High School, continuing the mission of the Blessed Basil Moreau, who created the Congregation of Holy Cross to educate and spread the word of God in France following the French Revolution. Throughout our school’s six-plus decades, these “educators in the faith” have been integral and inspirational members of our campus and community.

Br. Donatus Schmitz, C.S.C., served as the first principal Br. Eagan Hunter, C.S.C., an artist and teacher, with Elise Higgins, who deeded 14 acres to the Brothers to establish Saint Francis High School

HOLY CROSS EDUCATOR

Cinthya Miranda-McIntosh, teacher and HCA director, sets up students for success

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE HOLY CROSS ACHIEVERS (HCA) PROGRAM? Many of our students have found a home through this program. The program was created to provide academic support, leadership development, mentorship and preparation for college to first-generation college-bound students.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR YOUR HCA STUDENTS? We want students to be self-advocates for their education and their wellness at school. We teach them how to talk to teachers for the support they need. They have tutors and through the four years, we pair them up with an educator mentor. We want them to feel comfortable starting a conversation, whether it is with other students or professionals. The key to success is knowing how to ask for help and when to offer to help others. Hopefully they carry these skills to college.

YOU HAVE BUILT MANY CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH THESE STUDENTS. HOW DO YOU WANT THEM TO SEE YOU? A few years ago a parent told me I was a role model for her daughters. They saw a Hispanic female, like themselves, making a difference in young people’s lives. Knowing this reminded me of the impact we all have and how much representation matters. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE PART ABOUT TEACHING AT SAINT FRANCIS? I once saw a poster that said, “To teach is to touch the future.” That’s what solidified my desire to be an educator. The impact and connection I have on my students, especially my HCA students, is one of the best parts of my work. I let them know that I’m there for them beyond their years at Saint Francis. They know my involvement with them comes from the heart. If I can affect them in a positive way, my hope is that they can impact and influence the younger generation.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF? I think of the accomplishments of our students while they’re at Saint Francis and what they accomplish after college. I love being able to hear how they are being role models and helping all who cross paths with them years after Saint Francis.

PROGRESS

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