CLEVELAND — Phil Donahue, the Clevelander who became a pioneering talk show host with a program that reinvented daytime television, died at the age of 88 after a long-term illness, his family told NBC News.
Donahue, who originally based his show in Dayton, Ohio, began his career as a nationally syndicated host in 1970. "The Phil Donahue Show" won a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Daytime Talk Series six times during its run that ended in 1996. In 2002, TV Guide named Donahue's program one of the 50 greatest shows on TV.
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He also worked as a correspondent for NBC's "Today" show. He also briefly hosted a program on MSNBC.
Born in Cleveland's West Park neighborhood in 1935, he went to Our Lady of Angels grade school and was a member of the very first graduating class of St. Edward High School in 1953.
"He was a senior when I was a freshman, same thing at Notre Dame senior - freshman," recalled longtime Cleveland sports reporter Danny Coughlin who was a classmate of Donahue's in high school and college.
He remembered him performing on the St. Ed's stage.
"At a basketball rally he played the role of the St. Ed's basketball coach, and he was very good," Coughlin said.
Paul Mocho, St. Ed's Vice President of Institutional Advancement, had several dealings with Donahue over the years.
"Phil was a great St. Ed's alum. He was very proud of the fact that he was part of the first graduating class of St. Ed's of 1953," Mocho said. "He talked about it all of the time how he was there for the first band and the first fight song and the first football game and everything they did was a first."
Mocho met with Donahue last year ahead of the Class of 1953's 70th reunion, where Donahue shared with him something few people knew. St. Ed's was so new in 1949 he almost didn't go there.
"His mom was ready to send him to Benedictine, and luckily she saw that there was a new Catholic school coming up in Lakewood, and Phil was an OLA guy so he was going to be close to home and he wouldn't have to get on a bus to go to Benedictine anymore," he said.
What Donahue got from St. Ed's, he and his wife Marlo Thomas have paid forward for years.
"Phil started one of our first endowed scholarships," said Mocho. "We have 12 kids receiving the Phil and Marlo Thomas endowed scholarships to help them attend St. Ed's, so he kind of put his money where his mouth is in being that supportive."
Something not lost on St. Ed's alumni like Coughlin.
"He was our first big donor, first big benefactor. In fact we maybe ought to make it, call St. Ed's - St. Phil's," he said with a chuckle.
Earlier this year, President Joe Biden awarded Donahue with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
"Before social media and clickbait news, Phil Donahue broadcast the power of personal stories in living rooms all across America," President Biden said earlier this year. "He helped change hearts and minds through honest and open dialogue. And over the course of a defining career in television and through thousands of daily conversations, Phil Donahue steered the nation’s discourse and spoke to our better angels. I wish you were still speaking there, pal. It made a big difference."
Donahue's show aired on News 5. Watch a 1979 story from our archives.
