Donnie Perkins
(Baseball 1966)
This 2024 Danbury High School Hall of Fame inductee was a three-sport
athlete,1966 graduate Donnie Perkins. While at Danbury High School, Donnie was a
student-athlete in baseball, basketball, and cross country. He was co-captain of the
basketball team during the 1965-66 season. Donnie played second base helping the
team beat the 1965 LL State Champions, Brien McMahon, and tie for the Divisional
Championship with a 15-4 record and was All-FCIAC Conference Honorable mention.
While playing second base for the Danbury Pirates Baseball Club from 1970-76, he led
the team in stolen bases with a .295 batting average.
After his graduation from Danbury High School, Donnie attended Central State
University in Wilberforce, Ohio, graduating with a degree in education in 1970. He
received a Master of Science in executive management from Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute in Hartford in 1992. He began his career as a counselor at Community Action
Committee of Danbury (CACD) and a Physical Education and Health teacher, assistant
basketball and baseball coach in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Donnie worked in
management at General Motors-Chevrolet 1973-76 and served as the Director of
Employment and Training at CACD, 1976-80.
Donnie has over 35 years’ experience in higher education, government, and
health leadership positions at prestigious universities and institutions. He served as
Senior Equity Officer for the Connecticut Board of Governors for Higher Education,
Executive Assistant to the President for Human Relations at Central Connecticut State
University, Dean and Director of Institutional Diversity and Equity at Northeastern
University, Vice-President and Chief Diversity Officer at University Hospitals in
Cleveland, Ohio, and Assistant Dean and Chief Diversity Officer at the College of
Engineering at The Ohio State University. He has completed course work toward a
Ph.D. in Executive Leadership and numerous leadership development programs
including the Ford Foundation Education Policy Fellowship Program, The Harvard
University Management Program, Millenium Leadership for Prospective College
Presidents, and the Executive Coaching Program at Case Western Reserve University
in Cleveland, Ohio.
While at Northeastern University in 2010, he proudly collaborated with the US
Postal Service, The Red Sox, Boston Foundation and Negro Baseball League Museum
to unveil the second commemorative Negro League Baseball Stamp featuring the
League’s founder, Rube Foster. Andrew “Rube” Foster was an American Negro
Baseball player, manager, and executive in the Negro Leagues. Foster was elected to
the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1981. At the unveiling there was a reception that included
former Red Sox players Dennis “Oil Can” Boyd, Luis Tiant, Sam Horn and Negro
League player Mahlon Newton “Mal” Duckett. He also curated and made available to
the public in Massachusetts for five months the Negro Baseball League Art exhibition,
“Shades of Greatness: The Art of the Negro Baseball League.” The critically acclaimed
exhibition featured 35 original baseball works of art produced by 28 diverse professional
artists from across the country. The art interpreted the Negro League’s experience on
and off the playing field.
Donnie continues to coach and mentor and advise talented diverse higher
education, law, health, business and government leaders and professionals across the
country.