Bill Donohue

William Anthony "Bill" Donohue (born July 18, 1947) is an American sociologist and civil activist. He has been president of the Catholic League in the United States since 1993.

Life and career

Donohue was born in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, New York. He began his teaching career in the 1970s working at St. Lucy's School in Spanish Harlem. In 1977, he took a teaching position at La Roche College in McCandless, Pennsylvania. In 1980 he received his doctorate in sociology from New York University. Donohue is divorced and has two adult children from his marriage.

His first book was The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union and he became associated with the conservative Heritage Foundation where he is an adjunct scholar.

While Donohue was in college in New York, Virgil C. Blum, a Jesuit at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, founded the Catholic League to counter anti-Catholicism in American culture. Blum died in 1990; in 1993, Donohue became the director of the organization. Under his direction, the organization has become far more prominent and vocal.