CLEVELAND, Ohio – Tim Donovan, who led Canalway Partners for three decades and championed the vision of transforming a neglected canal into one of Northeast Ohio’s most beloved recreational assets, died Wednesday in Cleveland. He was 74.

“His vision, expertise, tenacity, and ability to collaborate paved the way for a trail system that has forever improved the quality of life in northeast Ohio,” Canalway Partners said in announcing his passing.

When Donovan became executive director of Canalway Partners in 1990, the Ohio & Erie Canal was a polluted and overgrown relic. As he recalled in a 2019 Cleveland Magazine profile , “People have fallen in love with the Towpath Trail,” but at the start, the idea of walking or biking alongside the canal drew skepticism. The group had just three boar

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