Peter F. Donnelly (1938 – 2009) was an American patron of the arts, and a pivotal figure in the development of the arts community in Seattle. A Massachusetts native, Donnelly arrived in Seattle in 1964 on a fellowship to work with the fledgling Seattle Repertory Theatre. Soon, he was hired as the first managing director and later as producing director, a position he held until 1985, when he left Seattle to become the Executive Managing Director of the Dallas Theatre Center. He returned to Seattle in 1989 to head the Seattle Corporate Council for the Arts,which later became ArtsFund, where he served as President and CEO until retiring in 2005. During his tenure, the fund more than doubled its annual distributions and raised over $10 million in endowments. Donnelly also served on the Board of Directors for the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, the 5th Avenue Theatre, the University of Washington School of Drama Advisory Committee and Classic KING-FM Radio Station. In 2001, the Seattle Central Library named its Art and Literature Collection after Donnelly, in recognition of his decades of art advocacy in Seattle.

Interview conducted by Maxine Cushing Gray and an unidentified interviewer on August 12 and 19, 1985. This interview is part of the Donald Schmechel Oral History Collection. Don Schmechel, who was a member of the Seattle Public Library Foundation board, began this project with Seattle Public Library in 1984, with the Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) brought on board as a partner in early 1985. Schmechel himself worked to raise the funding for the project, and volunteered his time to manage the project, and to conduct interviews along with a crew of volunteers. Originally titled the Videotaping Historic Figures (VHF) Program, the project interviewed 91 people, and MOHAI holds the interviews for 32 of these individuals.