Dr. Salvatore R. Donohue, a physician and former medical director at Maryland General Hospital, died Saturday of a heart attack while on vacation at Bethany Beach, Del. He was 64 and had residences in Homeland and in Stuart, Fla.
An internist who practiced in Baltimore, he was also a hospital administrator.
"He helped bring Maryland General from a small, surgically oriented local hospital to a full-service community hospital," said Dr. Robert Roby, chief of emergency medicine at Maryland General.
"He was an outgoing person who was well-known in the Baltimore medical community," said Dr. Robert Liberto, a colleague who lives in Cockeysville. "If you were his friend, he was a friend for life. He had a good personal relationship with all his patients and his professional contacts."
Born in Baltimore and raised in Guilford, he was a 1955 graduate of Loyola High School and earned a degree from Loyola College. He received his medical degree from the University of Maryland.
In the mid-1960s he was an intern and resident at Mercy Medical Center in downtown Baltimore. He was also a captain in the Army's medical corps from 1965 to 1967.
"He made a lasting impression here," said Sister Elizabeth Anne Corcoran, a Sister of Mercy who is Mercy Medical Center administrator. "He was wonderful to all his patients."
Dr. Donohue completed his residency at Maryland General, where he was named director of ambulatory services in 1971. His first assignment was to expand a popular city walk-in care center in the Richmond Market, a 19th-century market facility and armory that adjoined the hospital buildings in the 800 block of N. Howard St.
He and others on the Maryland General staff oversaw the conversion of the market into a waiting room, medical records department and examining cubicles. In 1971, the clinic recorded nearly 60,000 visits.
"The board of trustees had a choice," he said in a 1971 Evening Sun interview, "to discontinue the service or to meet the needs of the community and expand it to give the best quality of care at the most reasonable price for all the people."
"You couldn't meet a more down-to-earth man," said Simon Joseph Avara, a former Baltimore City deputy police chief who headed security at Maryland General Hospital. "He was a man who would help you in any way. He was loyal, dedicated and was an excellent listener."
Dr. Donohue was later named the hospital's director of medicine and also practiced at Mercy Medical Center until 1991, when he became the chief medical officer at Martin Memorial Health Systems in Stuart, Fla. He retired in 1999.
He belonged to many professional societies, including MedChi, the state medical society.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 10 a.m. today at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, 5300 N. Charles St., where he was a member.
He is survived by his wife of 42 years, the former Edith McParland; two daughters, Kathleen Lopez of Owings Mills and Deborah Donohue of Rodgers Forge; and three grandchildren.