William H. Donovan CDR, USN

From The Democrat and Chronicle on September 16, 2001: At the Pentagon, Cmdr. William Howard Donovan Jr, 37, the father of three young children, could not be found. Known as “Billy,” Donovan grew up in Nunda, Livingston County, graduating from Keshequa Central School and enrolling in the U.S. Naval Academy. His picture is on 14 pages of the 1982 school yearbook, Images. There he is: as president of the Key Club, as a member of the National Honor Society, as a wrestler, as the winner of the D.A.R. and Bausch & Lomb awards, as the most likely to succeed. In nearly all the pictures even the wrestling pose where he might have faked a menacing growl he looks at the camera with a hint of a smile. Cindy Schmitt, 47, of Geneseo, one of Donovan’s teachers, remembers him as impish. When you saw him, you just wanted to give him a hug, she said. When she learned that Donovan was off to the Naval Academy, the teacher had teased him about it, saying that it could be difficult, that the military was serious stuff. Billy Donovan smiled. He knew what he wanted to do.