Residence Life director finds adventure through traveling, comic books

Comic book lover and world traveler Anthony Donovan, the associate dean of students and director of Residence Life, is doing a job at Belmont he dreamed of since he was 24 years old.

Donovan, born in Illinois, moved around the country throughout his life. In just the three years he was in middle school, he moved 14 times.

Donovan has been at Belmont for the past 16 years — the longest he has ever stayed in one place, he said.

Even though he is settled in Nashville, Donovan still loves to explore the world. Donovan and his wife enjoy traveling to cities all over — from London to San Diego to Tokyo.

Donovan likes to be a tour guide with his wife when they travel together. One of his favorite things to do when traveling is to go somewhere before he takes his wife there, so when they go together he can show her all the cool things he found in the city, Donovan said.

“When I met my wife, she hadn’t been any further north than Cincinnati, and she hadn’t been any further south than Atlanta,” he said. “Now she can’t say that at all.”

Donovan and his wife love traveling because it brings them so many new experiences and adventures he can talk about with people, he said.

“I love stories. I like to tell people all the time, most things are worth it if you can get a good story out of it,” Donovan said.

When he isn’t exploring foreign cities, Donovan gets his adventure fix through comic books.

Donovan loves anything with superheroes in it, he said. He even has an entire room in his house full of comic books.

He bought his first comic book when he was 9 years old and has been collecting them ever since.

“I was nerdy cool before nerdy was cool,” Donovan said.

His two favorite superheroes are Aquaman and Spiderman.

Donovan likes comic books because he “learned so many things about life from them,” he said.

“The Batman and the Spiderman I grew up with were people who were really complex people trying to solve really complex problems,” Donovan said.

Donovan has always connected with superheroes because he feels they are great role models for young people to look up to, he said.

“I think it’s good for people to have heroes,” Donovan said. “I think it’s funny how few people have them nowadays.”

This article was written by Emily Allen. Photo courtesy of Anthony Donovan.