Tom Donovan, the Bridgeport political operator who quietly ran Mayor Richard J. Daley’s patronage machine before taking the reins at the Chicago Board of Trade, has died at 88, closing the chapter on a classic City Hall backroom era.
Donovan died on Sunday, according to his obituary; he was 88 and had served as chief of staff to Mayors Richard J. Daley and Michael A. Bilandic before becoming the long-serving president and CEO of the Chicago Board of Trade, Chicago Sun-Times reports. The notice adds that he later founded Quantum Crossings and remained a familiar figure in Bridgeport civic life. Visitation was held Friday, with a funeral Mass on Saturday.
In a 2009 oral-history interview, Donovan recalled joining the mayor’s office in 1969 as an administrative assistant and said that “the only responsibility... was the head of patronage,” noting that the role eventually morphed into what people later called a chief of staff. A transcript from UIC captures his detailed account of how appointments and hiring moved through City Hall.
Bridgeport power broker
Colleagues and historians remember Donovan as the quintessential Bridgeport power broker, the guy in the back room who connected business leaders and party bosses with city jobs. “Daley made the final decisions on whether a particular ward got X number of jobs, and which ones, but Donovan lined up the requests and sent out the orders,” political scientist Dick Simpson told the Chicago Sun-Times.
From City Hall to LaSalle Street
After the 1979 mayoral shakeup, Donovan exited City Hall for the private sector, landing at the Chicago Board of Trade and steadily climbing the ranks until he was running the exchange. He stayed a constant presence in Chicago business and civic circles even as the CBOT and the Loop were transformed from rowdy trading pits into modern markets and a reshaped downtown.
Why his death matters
Though Donovan died earlier in June, his passing comes as Chicago is taking another hard look at both its political machine past and the commercial history of LaSalle Street; the story also surfaced in the Chicago Tribune’s Afternoon Briefing later in the month. The opening of the CBOT’s new museum and recent efforts to reimagine the Loop have put that history back under the spotlight, Axios reported, and reforms that followed the Shakman litigation still form the backdrop for how City Hall hiring is supposed to work today.
Donovan is survived by his wife, Vita, along with his children and grandchildren; friends and former colleagues have been posting memories and tributes on the funeral site. The obituary and full service information are available online at the Chicago Sun-Times.
