James M. Donna, Newspaperman

James M. Donna, who retired to Montauk in 2006 after a career with the Associated Press news agency, died on Jan. 10 at New York University Langone Tisch Hospital in Manhattan. He was 71 and had liver and kidney failure.

Mr. Donna began work with the Associated Press in Philadelphia in 1973. He had previously worked at Look magazine and the Reading Eagle, a newspaper in Reading, Pa.

For a time during the 1980s, he worked at Gamma Liaison, a photo agency, before returning to the A.P., where he had been the enterprise editor and New York City bureau chief. He then served in a series of management roles at the New York City headquarters, including assistant to the president, vice president, and the board of directors, as well as director of human resources and then senior vice president of international business.

Among Mr. Donna’s more memorable assignments was coordinating coverage for the stuntman Evel Knievel’s 1974 Snake River Canyon jump attempt in Wyoming and the return of the 52 American hostages who had been held in Iran for more than 14 months to West Point, in 1981.

He was a trustee of the Montauk Library, a member of its strategic planning committee, and  a volunteer at its annual book fair. In New York City, he had been a board member of Services for the Underserved.

He was born on July 15, 1946, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., to Michael Donna and the former Dolores Slattery. He attended schools in Wilkes-Barre and attended several colleges before graduating from St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He received a master’s degree in journalism from Penn State University.

He and Patricia Lukaszewska were married on Aug. 18, 1979. The couple had a house on Seaview Avenue in Montauk, and Ms. Lukaszewska said her husband enjoyed surfcasting and being at the beach a great deal. They also had a house in Katonah, N.Y. 

Mr. Donna is survived by a son, Peter Donna, and a daughter, Sarah Donna, both of New York City as well as a sister, Mary Ann Kelly of Baltimore, and a nephew.

His ashes will be scattered privately in Montauk.

Donations in his memory have been suggested to the Montauk Library, 871 Montauk Highway, Montauk 11954 and Services for the Underserved, 463 Seventh Avenue, 17th Floor, New York City  10018.