The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

Louis Donnelly passed peacefully in his sleep on April 13, 2012 at his home near Sacramento aftera3yearbattlewith lung cancer. He was born to Richard and Rita Donnelly in Walla Walla on June 2, 1955 and raised in Waitsburg and Walla Walla. Services were held at St Marks Catholic church and he was laid to rest in the Waitsburg cemetery on April 21.

Struggling with asthma all his life, he required frequent hospitalization in his youth. He also spent time at the Asthmatic Foundation in Tucson AZ. He attended St Patrick's grade school as he could walk across the street from St Mary's. He was able to move home to Waitsburg his sophomore year and graduated from DeSales in '73. He worked at Waitsburg's Green Giant Cannery and received his AA from WWCC.

He moved to Tucson in '76 for his health and became a respiratory therapist. He worked for two hospitals for several years and then went to work for Travel Corp. He worked for them in hospitals around the country, including a year in Saudi Arabia. When he had time off, he traveled and visited family & friends. After several years, he returned to Tucson to work and attend the University of Arizona.

He graduated Magna Cum Laude in '90 with a MIS degree and went to work for Hewlett Packard in the Bay Area and continued to work RT at a local hospital.

He transferred to Sacramento in '99 and took an early retirement option for HP in '06. He spent a year doing the things he love; traveling, visiting family and friends and reading. He then returned to respiratory therapy and after a short time was selected to run the IT department for the respiratory and physical rehab departments of several Sutter hospitals.

He was a lifelong learner and voracious reader. He followed sports, especially his alma maters. He was a kind, considerate and generous person with a sharp wit and great sense of humor who will be missed deeply by all those who knew him. He was preceded in death by his father. And is survived by his mother Rita now of Walla Walla,; his sister and brother in law, Rose and Sam Worth of Walla Walla; niece Jena Worth of Gresham, Or; nephew Casey Worth of Billings, MT, several aunts and uncles, numerous cousins and good friends.