About Me

Updated Sat Aug 25, 2007

Here is a picture of me Hi, my name is Dick Donohue from Portage, Michigan. I am a child of God, a husband, a father, a son, a brother, and a professional computer programmer.

Humble beginnings
I was born a small white child. I don't remember much about it. I was quite young at the time.... ;-) I'm told that it happened on Long Island in New York in 1961. I am the fourth of five kids. My family is now scattered across the globe. My brother, Mark, lives in Alaska. My sister, Carol, lives in New Hampshire. My brother, Paul, is in Las Vegas; and my little younger brother, Pete lives nearby in Augusta, Michigan. My father lives in California and my mother lives in Florida. Needless to say, family reunions are pretty rare. In 1969, my father, who was a marketing manager at the Upjohn Company, was transferred to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Portage (a suburb of Kalamazoo) has been my home ever since.

The Main Thing is to keep The Main Thing the Main Thing
In all that I do, I try to keep God as the first and foremost influence in my life. This is a difficult task. Over the course of the last few years, like many Christians, my faith has ebbed and flowed. For ten years, I was active as a founding member of the band at Southridge Reformed Church. Then it was time for me to move on. After an almost two-year period of church-searching and soul-searching, God revealed a plan for me and led me to The River. I love it there. Every Sunday, I am spiritually fed. And yes, I'm getting involved in the music ministry there, too. So life is good.



All's Fair in Love and War
I was married in 1988. The marriage ended after she left on Memorial weekend 1996. But from that marriage came two beautiful children, Brian, age 16 and Sarah, age 13. They are the light of my life and I love every minute I get to spend with them. Brian stays with his mom all the time. I see him for a couple days every other weekend (don't even get me going on that one!) Sarah spends equal time between parents (a week on, a week off). Dick and Sherry - click me! Life goes on and just keeps getting better. God has since put an angel in my life. Sherry - what can I say - She is fun, pretty, sensitive, caring and loving. I am sure that this is who God had intended me to be with all along. So I had no choice: I asked her to marry me. And she said "Yes!" Can you believe it? We got married on August 18th, 1999. We recently celebrated our 8th anniversary. That was a milestone since neither one of us has ever had been married for eight years (in a row!). We've been through a lot and we are more committed to each other than ever.
Hey! Just look at that picture! Isn't she just fabulous looking?!! Woo Woo!! Am I ever blessed!!

Am I Working or Am I just Having Fun? (yes!)
Ever since college, I've been one of those lucky people whose career is the same as his obsession ..er..hobby! I'm a computer programmer (an application developer). I've worked at several different companies. I've spent a great deal of time working on IBM iSeries computers. (formerly known as AS/400 computers, now they are calling them System i -- hard to keep up!). I think that a primary reason that I've stayed with the iSeries so long is that, despite years of truly abysmal marketing from IBM, they have always been the finest business computers available. In 2002, I took a leap of faith and became self-employed and Donohue Computer Services was created.

Health?
On December 1, 2004, my life changed dramatically. I was diagnosed with Follicular B-cell Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (cancer).  This was a devastating revelation at first, especially since it is currently incurable. I have chronicled my "adventure" with lymphoma on my blog; I documented my treatment progress on my Lymphoma Photo page. By the grace of God and with the help of prayers of many friends and loved ones, I was able to get into remission very quickly (within three weeks) without losing hair or getting sick. I am still in remission and the goal now is to keep it that way as long as I can. So far, so good: Every year, I get another CaT scan to hunt for Mr Lymphoma. The last two have shown NO CANCER! Woo hoo! Even so, prayers are always welcome.

A few months after the cancer was under control, I got a new diagnosis: Type 2 Diabetes. This has proved to be more difficult to deal with than the lymphoma ever was. So I am on all kinds a drugs which seem to be lowering my blood sugar levels. And I'm trying to eat better and get more exercise. Prayers in this area are also welcome!

Ch-Ch-Changes!
Well that's it for now! Stay tuned: the only thing that is consistent is change!