CHICAGO, Ill. — Art and advocacy were themes that defined the life of Courtney Ann Graham Donnell. An art curator, advocate for people with disabilities, devoted alumna of Wellesley College, and frequent visitor to Maine, Donnell died Sept. 27 in Chicago, Illinois from complications of mulitiple sclerosis at the age of 72.

Donnell earned her B.A. in Art History at Wellesley College in 1967. After graduation, she earned her M.A. in Art History at the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University and worked at the Serge Sabarsky Gallery in New York.

Moving to Chicago in 1974 with her then-husband Bill Donnell, she was hired as a curatorial research assistant at the Art Institute of Chicago. Over the next 30 years, she rose to the position of Associate Curator in the Art Institute’s Department of 20th Century Painting and Sculpture.  Highly regarded for her meticulous research, she never left a stone unturned when gathering documentation on artworks by major figures of the modern and contemporary period.

Confined to a motorized scooter later in life due to multiple sclerosis, Donnell continued to work tirelessly through the Chicago-area nonprofit organization Access Living to help others with disabilities live active and full lives.

A memorial service was held Oct. 18 at Saint Chrysostom’s Episcopal Church in Chicago.  Donnell is survived by her brother, John Graham, with whom she co-owned a family home in Fortunes Rocks.  She is also survived by three first cousins, James Fairman in Florida, Robert Fairman in New Hampshire, and Radha Gaines in New York, as well as her former husband, Bill Donnell of Chicago.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Courtney Ann Graham Donnell ’67 Memorial Fund at Wellesley College: [email protected].