Donald E.

Baldovin

Donald Baldovin, age 90, of Austin, Texas, passed away on October 20, 2026, at the Heart Hospital of Austin, Texas.

He was born in Ironwood, Michigan, on December 29, 1935, the son of Angelo and Rose Baldovin. He attended both the Hurley Public and St. Mary's Catholic schools, graduating from Hurley High School in 1953. From a family with limited financial means, he was able to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison because he received a Knapp Scholarship, which at that time in the 1950's was the highest-value scholarship in the state, graduating with Honors in 1957 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering. He then joined Standard Oil Company (Indiana), which later changed its name to Amoco Corporation and merged with BP p.l.c. in 1999. He earned a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Chicago in 1962. After a 41-year career working three times in the Company's Chicago headquarters, as well as in New York, London, Tehran, Denver and Houston, with positions in planning, economics, administration and finance, he retired in 1998 from Amoco as Vice President, Finance and Business Support, Worldwide Exploration Business Group. During his career, he was one of a two-person team that successfully negotiated a$600 million cash payment from the Iranian revolutionary government during 1988-90 to compensate for the expropriation of Amoco's commercial activities. He also safely evacuated 40 Amoco employees stranded in Kabul, Afghanistan after the outbreak of the 1971 Pakistan-India war. In retirement, he maintained residences in Austin, Texas, and Denver, Colorado.

He had a lifelong focus on learning and education. As a graduating senior at Hurley High School, he gave a commencement address on ''The Challenge of Education". Although he never lived in Wisconsin after 1957, he maintained a close relationship with Hurley and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he established two undergraduate scholarships, one to honor his father and mother and another in his name, and endowed both a Graduate Fellowship and the Baldovin-DaPra Professorship in Chemical and Biological Engineering, which honors his family's names, as all four of his grandparents immigrated to the U.S. from Lozzo Cadore, a small town in the mountains of Northern Italy in the early 1900's. In 2012, the UW's College of Engineering honored him with a Distinguished Achievement Award. In 2013, the Hurley Education Foundation presented him with a Distinguished Alumni Award. In Austin, he was a member of LAMP (Learning Activities for Mature People). During his last 18 years with Amoco, he hired 85 MBAs and mentored all of the MBAs who worked in the exploration and production segment of the company.

He traveled extensively throughout his life, working or visiting in all 50 states and about 130 countries.

Surviving relatives are his brother, Dave (Mary) Baldovin, Lynchburg, TN, five nieces and nephews Renee (Mark) Watrud, John (Margaret) Taylor, Jeff Taylor, David Baldovin, and Andria (Leland) Davis, and seven grandnephews and nieces Michael Schlinsky, Carmen Taylor, Maria Gerlach, Zane Taylor, Kenzie Taylor, Caroline Baldovin, and Grayson Baldovin. He was preceded in death by his parents and sister, Dee Taylor.

He was a member of Saint Mary Cathedral parish in Austin, Texas. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. Mary's Catholic Church, Hurley, on Friday, November 13, 2026, with visitation from 10 a.m. until the Mass at 11 a.m., with Fr. Raj Sunkura officiating. Burial will be in St. Mary's Cemetery, Hurley. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to St. Mary's, Hurley.