He was a hero

Ex-Newser’s bro committed to helping others

A BELOVED former assistant provost at a New Jersey college who devoted his life to helping inner-city youth was found dead after he jumped off the George Washington Bridge, a family member said Sunday.

Pat Donohue, 50, who was the identical twin brother of former Daily News transit reporter and columnist Pete Donohue, was found in the Spuyten Duyvil Creek near W. 218th St. and Indian Road about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, police said.

“It sounds cliche, but Pat truly was amazing,” his twin said. “He dedicated his life to helping others, tackling the social and economic problems in the town he loved so much, Trenton.”

Donohue (pictured) retired July 1 from his job as the popular director of the Bonner Institute for Civic and Community Engagement at the College of New Jersey, where he worked for nine years.

As a college administrator, he played a key role in the college opening a satellite office in Trenton.

“He didn’t do good deeds for attention or acclaim, but simply because he cared,” Pete Donohue said. “He was the best.”

Donohue was a major force behind an innovative program to get inner-city teens with prior criminal records off the streets and into rehab and focused jobtraining programs.

The Trenton Violence Reduction Strategy has been a major success, turning about 40 troubled teens away from their lives of crime, said Trenton Detective Alexis Durlacher, who worked with Donohue to create the program two years ago.

“He was the dream maker,” she recalled. “He knew how to get the right people together to make this happen.”

In April, Donohue was honored for his years of support of an after-school program for urban kids run by retired NBA player Greg Grant.

The Sports Academy started with 10 kids a decade ago and now has 500 enrolled, Grant said.

“He cared about a community that a lot of people hadn’t cared about for a lot of years,” Grant said of Donohue. “It’s very rare to find someone who cares that much about a community.”

The Rev. Toby Sanders also hailed Donohue.

“Most of the time, people don’t know what they mean when they use the word ‘hero,’ ” the clergyman told NJ.com. “But Pat Donohue was a hero. And just like a hero, he would swoop in there right when you needed him most.”

In addition to his twin, Pete, Donohue is survived by his wife of 26 years, Donna; son, Patrick James, 20, daughter Catherine, 16; parents, Jim and Marlene; brother, Jim; sister, Mary, and many aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews.

He didn’t do good deeds for attention or acclaim, but simply because he cared.

PETE DONOHUE