Peter Donohue, 68, Newspaper Veteran

Peter Donohue began a lengthy career in newspapers in the early 1970s at The New York Daily News. In 1982, when USA Today launched, he became general manager of the New York region and was credited with implementing daily deliveries to hotel rooms. He retired in 2008 and moved to Sag Harbor the following year, after briefly teaching management at Nassau Community College.

Mr. Donohue died last Thursday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital of complications of throat and neck cancer. He was 68.

Mr. Donohue was born on June 29, 1949, in Flushing to Peter and Rita Donohue. His father had also worked at The New York Daily News. The younger Mr. Donohue attended St. Andrew Avellino Elementary School and graduated from the Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary, a private Catholic high school in Elmhurst, where he played on the varsity baseball team. After high school he went to Iona College, where he was an avid sports fan and played collegiate hockey, earning the nickname Glider. He graduated from Iona in 1973 with a business degree,  following it with a master’s degree from Fordham University. 

Mr. Donohue and Lynn A. Daly were married on Dec. 11, 1996, and lived in Centre Island. The family included the couple’s sons, Peter and Brendon, and two children from Ms. Donohue’s previous marriage — a daughter, Jocelyn Daly, and her twin brother, Sean Daly.

Mr. Donohue was known to attack the Newsday crossword puzzle daily and the New York Times puzzle on Sundays, as well as  watching the television show “Jeopardy” every evening at 7. According to his family, he had a broad smile and easygoing personality, and was an enthusiastic golfer, a sport that became his passion.

A devout Catholic and a member of St. Andrew’s Catholic Church in Sag Harbor, a funeral Mass was said for him there on Monday. He is survived by his wife, who lives in Sag Harbor, his sons, Peter Donohue and Brendon Donohue, both of Brooklyn, his stepdaughter, Jocelyn Daly Osborn of Wainscott, and his stepson, Sean Daly of Hampton Bays, as well as two grandchildren.

Memorial donations have been suggested to the Cancer Research Institute, 29 Broadway, 4th Floor, New York 10006.