James Ervin Donaghue

James Ervin Donaghue, 63, of Plano, Texas passed away at Medical City Plano on May 15, 2022. He was preceded in death by his parents, Cliff and Dorothy Donaghue; his brother in law, Terry Curtis; and his long-time friends Gord Murison and Bob Reddick.

Born in Port Hope, Ontario, James attended McMaster University and earned a Bachelor’s degree in sociology and criminology. After university, he received his first job offer with the Alberta Solicitor General & Justice Ministry. James moved to Alberta, serving as a peace officer for over 32 years. After beginning his career as a probation officer, James eventually worked his way to the top non-minister position in his branch as Executive Director. Near the end of his public service career, James was honored with a meritorious service award from the lieutenant-governor of Alberta, the viceregal representative in Alberta of Canadian Monarch Queen Elizabeth II.

In 2014, James retired from his first career and relocated to Plano, Texas. After receiving his green card near the end of 2015, James started working at Bass Pro Shops in Grapevine, Texas in 2016 (through present). Bass Pro had a special draw for James after spending three plus decades in the Rocky Mountains hunting, fly fishing, camping, horseback riding, training pack horses and leading pack trains. If James wasn’t in his office in Alberta, he could be found out in nature nearly 100% of his non-sleeping time. James had become semi-pro in his flyfishing skills. He was also an avid reader in the evenings before bed.

Prior to moving to Alberta, James enjoyed annual family ski vacations, spending time with grandparents in Iron Bridge and visits to see Uncles Ken and Colin + cousins at their cabins in Sault Ste Marie. James taught skiing during his school winters, dabbled in curling and playing golf, and played the guitar. He even had curling tickets for him and his dad to attend the Winter Olympics in Vancouver years back.

After relocating to Texas, James enjoyed hunting with his stepson Everett Ford, fishing with his brother in law Anthony Jones, and playing with his Nikon to build his wildlife photography skills. “Uncle James” relished any time he had with his nephews, as well as loved being an “Opa” for his granddaughters. Last year, James and Marie-Annette bought 12 acres of mountain-top property in the Black Hills, bordered on two sides by Black Hills National Forest, with the intention of getting horses and building their forever home among the trees in Spearfish, South Dakota.

James is survived by his wife of 15 years, Marie-Annette Donaghue; his stepson Everett Ford (Ashley); his sister Sandra Curtis (Rick Halford); his mother and father in law (Annemarie and Gene Jones); his brother in law Anthony Jones (Molly); his granddaughters (Scotlyn, Harper and Kalina); his nephews (Stephen Curtis [Andrea], Bryan Curtis [Taylor], Anthony Jones, and Alexander Jones); the children of his nephews and nieces (Cole, Katherine and Cadence); his uncle Colin Donaghue; his cousins (Terry, Kathy, Melissa and Scott [Ray]); his best friend from early years Jim Palmer (Jen); and many other cherished friends and colleagues in both Canada and the United States. Last November, James and Marie-Annette purchased an Olde English Bulldog puppy (Sebi, short for Sebastian Taittinger). This now 8-month old fur baby brought tons of laughter and joy into the household, lighting up James’ eyes every day.

Finally, with his endless heart of gold, James also very actively supported annual projects for Zion Home for Children in Mutomo, Kenya (Pastor Harrison Kimwele) and Desired Haven Ministries in Jinja, Uganda (Pastor William Nviri)—and was looking forward to a trip to Kenya and Uganda after travel to Africa was safer. Local to DFW, James enjoyed assisting Marie-Annette with her firm’s Birdies Fore Love drives to help Genesis Women’s Shelter and Family Gateway.

The family will receive friends for a visitation, Tuesday, June 21, 2022, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Allen Family Funeral Options. There will be a funeral service held Wednesday, June 22, 2022, at 11:00 a.m. at Church of the Incarnation, 3966 McKinney Ave, Dallas, Texas with The Reverend Thomas Kincaid officiating. Because Marie-Annette is a U.S. Army veteran, James will be laid to rest at the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery following the service at 2:00 p.m., 2000 Mountain Creek Pkwy, Dallas, Texas.

Info about charitable contributions

Here are a few details for those who have asked about making charitable contributions in James Donaghue’s name.

Some of you know about the massive “Kenya caravan” project last year. Took most of the year to pull together. In conjunction with that project, Marie-Annette had started a fund with Centers of Hope Missions International to put aside $ for safe transportation for Pastor Harrison’s orphans. A small used school bus in reliable shape is well over $10,000. Probably closer to $16,000-20,000. We’ve pulled together a little over $3,000 (part directly held by Centers of Hope and part in Marie-Annette’s possession) from various monetary donations made while the used goods were being collected.

James’ sister Sandra Curtis and Marie-Annette talked and realized the one bit of unfinished project that involved James and the children is this vehicle fund.

To give you an idea of how important the children were to James, he took weeks off work without pay last Summer while still grieving the loss of his mom and dad 9 months apart (his dad Cliff had not been put to rest yet since we couldn’t get into Canada for a memorial service until months later) IN ORDER TO rent a 26-ft UHaul and drive across country with Marie-Annette to pick up donations from RSM Dallas, RSM San Antonio, RSM Kansas City, RSM Chicago, RSM Indianapolis, Centers of Hope in Spring City TN, RSM McLean, and RSM Gaithersburg. Plus rented local 10-ft and 15-ft UHauls in Baltimore to transport bikes that needed to be fixed to a team led by RSM Baltimore. And he paid for packers to help sort and prep the shipment before loading the 40-ft shipping container.

This was something given from the bottom of his heart for the children. James also personally paid for the storage costs in Baltimore, funded the ocean freight from Baltimore to Mombasa, and covered the import duty and transportation costs to get goods from Mombasa to Nairobi for clearing and finally trucked to Mutomo for delivery.

James would not rest until all the donations entrusted in good faith by coworkers, family and neighbors from all over the U.S. made it into the freight container, onto the ship, across the ocean, and to Africa.

James and Marie-Annette left home in her car and the UHaul (2 vehicles going across country) on July 3rd and didn’t wrap up until nearly mid August. Although James went home in between and worked a couple weeks, he had to come back to DC area to help Marie-Annette get the shipment moving. Marie-Annette stayed in the DC area coordinating things for the final 5 weeks before port.

If you would like to help James finish what he and Marie-Annette started for buying safe transportation, you can make a donation in his name to Centers of Hope—and it will go into the vehicle fund.

Here’s the link to the donation page. Please check the box for Kenya donations and put James’ name in the comment box.

https://cohmissionsinternational.org/donate-now/

Note: Centers of Hope has ZERO admin fees. All 501(c)3 labor is volunteer labor. And this is an IRS-approved charity. Natan Schwenk runs it, and Brad Harris is the accountant. Feel free to ask any questions of them. They run a tight ship with full accountability for quite literally every penny received, disbursed and spent. (They also send out annual receipts at year end, which can be given to your tax advisor.)

If this is something that touches your heart, Marie-Annette and Sandra know James would have been very happy to see the children be blessed with a safe, reliable means of transportation. James’ heart was incredible. He was such a trooper. Totally devoted. ️

James and Marie-Annette had flights to leave for Kenya this year on 27 June and be in Africa (both Kenya and Uganda) for 3 weeks. The trip was already cancelled prior to his passing for other conflicts, but James was very excited about when they could reschedule their trip.