John (Jack) F. Doran, 96, an Episcopalian of Christ Church in Harwich Port and Christ Church in Andover, known to many throughout the Diocese of Massachusetts for his faithfulness to the Episcopal Church and his volunteer retirement career as a leader and consultant to bishops, diocesan organizations and numerous parishes, died on May 12 at Bellamy Fields in Dover, N.H., where he had resided for the past several years.
Doran was an indefatigable force in the successful development, construction and start-up, in 2003, of the diocese’s Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center in Greenfield, N.H. The
Tracy J. Sukraw
Jack Doran in 2004, at the lakeside center named in his honor
camp and conference center’s Jack Doran Lakeview Center—with its view across the outdoor chapel to Otter Lake and the woods and sky beyond—was named in his honor in 2004.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1918, he grew up and went to school in Stamford and Windsor, Conn., and graduated from Yale University with a degree in economics. He worked as an industrial engineer before reporting for active duty in the U.S. Navy in 1940, serving first as an instructor to officer candidates and later, during World War II, as commanding officer of a landing ship at the invasion of Okinawa. After the war he resumed a manufacturing management career in Connecticut and Massachusetts, retiring from the Raytheon Company in 1991 after 25 years in the Andover plant and the corporate manufacturing staff.
A husband, father and grandfather, as well as an active churchman, Doran in retirement expanded upon his parish leadership responsibilities by taking on numerous diocesan ones, which, in addition to the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center building project, included service
Tracy J. Sukraw
Jack Doran, pictured with project manager Anne Dodd in 2003, was instrumental in getting the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center built.
on the Diocesan Council and Cathedral Chapter, finance, assessment review and mission focus committees, the Trustees of Donations and the marshalling of volunteer business and property consultants to parishes.
A man of good spirit and action, he left countless places in better shape than he first found them through his advocacy of sound business and financial practices, his mentorship to many at the helm of capital projects and property matters, and his agency for the kind of change that leads to progress.
A funeral service will be held on Wednesday, May 20 at 10 a.m. at Christ Church (33 Central Street) in Andover, with a reception to follow. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Jack Doran Fund in care of the Barbara C. Harris Camp and Conference Center, 108 Wally Stone Lane, Greenfield, NH 03047.
An obituary and online guestbook are available at www.contefuneralhomes.com.
--Tracy J. Sukraw