Frank Donahue

Professor Emeritus

Location

Chemical Engineering

Biography

In the nearly twenty years since Frank retired from active teaching in the Department of Chemical Engineering and received emeritus status, he has continued his professional activities and added a few avocations.

He has continued to consult and teach short courses – but less frequently than in the past – in areas defined by electrochemical engineering and science and battery / fuel cell technology. Prior to leaving the University, he had formed Minotaur Technologies, which provided the basis for his extramural teaching and consulting activities. Minotaur has provided in-house courses for some of the best-known battery manufacturers in the country.

In addition, he has been engaged by attorneys in the areas of corrosion and energy technology as an expert witness in civil law suits – as he describes his work: “I’m always on the side of the angels and folks who have been seriously hurt.”

The busy Departmental and University schedules had more-or-less eliminated serious reading, studying, and traveling of a non-professional nature for him. Retirement was the remedy for that situation. Recently, he has traveled extensively in the American southwest becoming a student of culture, scenery, and geology along the way. He has been invited to give talks to local school children on “The Four Corners Anasazi” and is currently working on DVDs and Windows Media Player presentations about, among other things, Willa Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop and Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

He has also traveled to Ireland to visit some of the relatives of Mary (his wife) and has put together some travel DVDs of the Emerald Isle. Flat Charlie went with Frank and his wife, Mary, on those trips.

In the last few years, he has developed an interest in postage stamps (particularly, Vatican City) and became co-President (with Mary) of the Ann Arbor Stamp Club in 2012.