First mayor of Ames passes

The first mayor of The City of Ames, Texas, passed away after a brief illness last week. Donatto was elected in 1972 as the first mayor of the newly incorporated city. Donatto was instrumental in Ames community becoming a city in 1972 and was re-elected as mayor in 1974.

Numerous residents of Liberty County who knew Donatto spoke of his intelligence and his love for inventing and engineering. Bill Buchanan, who is well known in the community for operating KSHN-FM for decades, once employed Donatto at KPXE-AM. Buchanan spoke of a time when the station had a piece of equipment connected to the transmitter that was in the country. The station needed to get a particular reading to be compliant with the FCC, and at the time, it required someone from the station to drive to the transmitter.

“Joe connected a box to get all of the readings that worked for the rest of the life of the transmitter. I know there was nothing that existed that could do that. He invented and created it to get the reading to be in compliance with the FCC,” said Buchanan.

Buchanan continued, “He was a brilliant engineer and an extraordinary guy.”

We also reached out to the current mayor of Ames, Cornelius Gilmore, who had this to say.

“Ames has a history rich with achievements and notable citizens. Trailblazers like Ames’ First Mayor Joe Donatto paved the way for me and all of us. I wasn’t even here when he was accomplishing amazing feats for our city. The town was thriving! I am doing my best to return our community to prosperous times,” said Gilmore.