Richard Frank Donovan (1891-1970) was born in New Haven, Connecticut and was a composer, organist, conductor and music teacher. Donovan studied from 1912 to 1914 at Yale Universit , then until 1918 at the Institute of Musical Arts in New York. In Paris, he was a student of Charles-Marie Widor. From 1920 to 192,3 he taught at the Taft School in Watertown and from 1923 to 1928 at Smith College in Northampton. From 1928 he was a member of the music faculty at Yale University. In 1940 he succeeded David Stanley Smith as dean of the faculty, and from 1954 until his retirement in 1960, he was a professor. He also taught at the Institute of Musical Arts (1925–1928) and at New York's Finch College (1926–1940).
From 1928 to 1965, Donovan was the organist at Christ Church in New Heaven. He was also conductor of the Bach Cantata Club (from 1933 to 1944) and the New Heaven Symphony Orchestra. Donovan was instrumental in organizing the Yaddo Music Festival in Saratoga Springs.
Donovan has emerged as a composer with chamber music, vocal and orchestral works, including two symphonies, the New England Cronicle overture, the symphonic poem Smoke and Steel ,
