Honoring a Tucson Trailblazer: The Vision and Legacy of Donovan Durband
Tucson’s urban core has seen tremendous growth over the past few decades, and behind that transformation stood a remarkable man: Donovan Durband. Known for his relentless dedication to revitalizing downtown Tucson, Donovan played a vital role in bringing life back to the area, creating opportunities for community connection, and leaving behind a legacy that will shape Tucson for generations to come.
In this special episode, we sit down with Erin Durband, Donovan’s widow, to honor his life, his work, and the lasting impact he has had on Tucson. Erin shares personal stories about Donovan’s passion for the city and the deep connection he felt toward its development. Together, we explore how his vision continues to influence the Tucson we know today.
A Visionary Behind Tucson’s Urban Transformation
When Donovan first arrived in Tucson, downtown was a shadow of what it is today. With boarded-up businesses and a quiet, almost forgotten atmosphere, the city’s core needed someone with a vision and a drive for change. Donovan saw what Tucson could become, and through his work with the Tucson Downtown Alliance, he played a key role in bringing that vision to life. Erin Durband recalls how Donovan tirelessly worked to attract businesses, promote cultural events, and make downtown a place where people could gather and celebrate the unique spirit of Tucson.
From festivals like Second Saturdays to his involvement in countless urban development projects, Donovan’s influence is felt in every corner of downtown Tucson. Erin shares how, behind the scenes, Donovan was deeply committed to making the urban core a thriving, welcoming place for all.
Preserving His Legacy: A Lasting Memorial
Though Donovan passed away in 2023, Erin Durband and the community continue to ensure his contributions are not forgotten. Erin is leading the charge in a movement to rename the Sixth Avenue underpass in his honor, ensuring that his legacy lives on for future generations. This proposal is more than just a name change—it represents Donovan’s deep connection to Tucson’s history and his role in bridging the past and future of downtown.
Erin explains how the underpass, a historic connection point in Tucson, will feature public art showcasing Donovan’s beloved postcard collection, a nod to his appreciation for Tucson’s heritage. This tribute, she says, will not only beautify the space but also keep Donovan’s memory alive in a part of the city he cared for deeply.
To provide comments and feedback on this proposal, please email michael.graham@tucsonaz.
A Community Connected by Donovan’s Work
What made Donovan’s work truly remarkable wasn’t just his vision for urban development—it was his commitment to fostering a sense of community. As Erin reflects, Donovan understood that Tucson’s strength lay in its people, and he made it his mission to connect them. Whether it was helping visitors navigate the city, promoting local businesses, or simply engaging with residents, Donovan made downtown Tucson a place where everyone felt welcomed.
His legacy continues today through the Donovan Dean Durband Supports Tucson Foundation, which Erin co-founded to carry on Donovan’s passion for strengthening the urban core. The foundation funds projects that support Tucson’s growth and community development, ensuring that Donovan’s vision lives on. Erin shares how the foundation is a way for people to get involved and help sustain the spirit of revitalization Donovan championed, keeping Tucson a vibrant, connected city.
Continuing Donovan’s Legacy and Engaging with Tucson’s Future
Donovan Durband’s story, as shared by his widow, Erin, is one of transformation, community, and lasting impact. As Tucson continues to evolve, his contributions remain a guiding force for the future of the city’s downtown core. Whether through the proposed Sixth Avenue underpass memorial or the continued work of the Donovan Dean Durband Supports Tucson Foundation, Erin and the community are ensuring Donovan’s legacy will shape Tucson for years to come.
To learn more about Donovan’s impact or to get involved with the ongoing effort to honor his memory, contact Tom Heath. And if you know of another Tucsonan whose story deserves to be told, we’d love to hear from you! Nominate someone who has left their mark on this incredible city, and help us share their story with the world.
Transcript (Unedited)
Tom Heath
Good morning. It’s a beautiful Sunday in the Old Pueblo. And you’re listening to Katy. Tucson. Thank you for spending a part of your brunch hour with us on your downtown Tucson community. Sponsored, all volunteer powered rock and roll radio station. This week, we speak with Aaron Durbin, the widow of Donovan Durbin, a remarkable figure whose contributions have left a lasting impact in Tucson and the urban core.
Tom Heath
There’s a movement underway to rename the Sixth Avenue underpass in his honor, and we’ll be talking about the legacy Donovan has left behind. And today is October 6th, 2024. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to Life Along the Streetcar. Each and every Sunday, our focus on social, cultural and economic impacts in Tucson’s urban core, and we shed light on hidden gems everyone should know about, from a mountain to the University of Arizona and all stops in between.
Tom Heath
You get the inside track right here on 99.1 FM, streaming a downtown radio talk, also available on your iPhone or Android with our very own downtown Radio Tucson app. You can interact with us on the show directly by heading over to Facebook and Instagram. And if you want more information on our show or book past episodes, or just want to contact us, we recommend you head over to Life Along the Street car.org.
Tom Heath
And of course, you can listen to our podcast on all kinds of platforms like Spotify, iHeartRadio, iTunes, and many other places where you pick up your favorite podcasts. Are you, meeting yourself? Is that are, you know, Tucson? Meet yourself big events where we have an opportunity for cultures that, are here in Tucson to share their, their history.
Tom Heath
A lot of it seems to be centered around the food, but there’s certainly art, culture, music, all kinds of things happening throughout for all this weekend. And, wrapping up today at Hakimi Plaza and, someone who, we want you to meet is someone who you probably know if you listen to the show, but his name is Donovan Durbin.
Tom Heath
He had passed away a little over a year ago, and, left a hole. He, he had been doing so much for our community with many different efforts that his passing made us realize how integral he was into the development of, of Tucson. And it was no accident. He’s been here for decades, working behind the scenes in many cases to to make these organizations stronger and better.
Tom Heath
And, we do miss him. There’s an effort underway now to, re rename the Sixth Avenue underpass in his honor, and I don’t worry, they are going to renovate it and make it a little bit nicer. You know, because otherwise it’d be kind of an insult to, to name it after him the way it looks now.
Tom Heath
But there’s all kinds of plans in the works. But the city needs some input from the community, and, we wanted to learn more about Donovan and this effort. So, we were, graciously able to get Ahold of, Erin Durbin. She’s Donovan’s widow. And, she agreed to chat with us here a little bit, and recorded this, this conversation just a couple of days ago.
Tom Heath
But today, I am deeply honored to be joined by Aaron Durbin, the the widow of Donovan Durbin, who was a beloved and influential figure here in Tucson, someone I knew personally and did amazing things. His impact on our community, not just in downtown but just in the surrounding areas, was was profound. And now there’s a movement underway to rename the Sixth Avenue underpass in his honor so that we can ensure his legacy lives on.
Tom Heath
And other generations have a chance to to recognize one of those individuals that helped with the transformation of our of our town. And so today, I want to thank Aaron for joining us. We’re going to talk about the man behind the legacy and kind of how we can move forward with this. Creating this lasting imprint on Aaron.
Tom Heath
Thank you for taking some time with us.
Erin Durband
Yeah. Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Tom Heath
I know, it’s been, been a lot of news recently that, the sixth Street underpass has potentially been, identified as a spot where we could do some work to honor Donovan. You know, I definitely want to talk about that, but can you. I’m just curious. Like, how did you and Donovan meet? Because you were married for 30 years.
Erin Durband
That’s right, 30 years we met. He. Well, first of all, he was working or living in Chicago and going to Northwestern University way back then. And he was managing a Domino’s Pizza out there. And he came out to Arizona to visit his brother, who lived up in the Phoenix area. And he took a side trip down to Tucson.
Erin Durband
And this was winter time. And he was like, man, Arizona is beautiful and Tucson is so quaint, so cute. And it’s winter. And you went, no way. It’s great. So we ended up transferring to the University of Arizona, and he just wanted to drive, pizza, deliver pizzas and not manage so he could focus on school. So he got, a position driving.
Erin Durband
And I wandered into the same Domino’s Pizza and got hired immediately. The manager said, come back Friday night. Our guy who trains our drivers will be here. His name’s Dawn.
Tom Heath
Oh, my.
Erin Durband
I came in that Friday night and they said, oh, darn, I waited around. He wasn’t there yet and they came in. He’s like, this is Dawn. He’s going to train you. And basically the rest is history. We drove around that night. He taught me what we were supposed to be doing, but we just had a great conversation. He just wanted to talk about everything.
Erin Durband
Families. Music. Interesting. You know, whatever. We were interested in school, it was just so easy to talk to him. You know how he is. Yeah. He’s curious, and he just loves to talk fun.
Tom Heath
And he mentioned he likes to talk about everything. That’s sort of his background. I was I was not surprised to learn that he had gotten his degree in, urban and planning development, but I was very surprised to understand that, like his undergraduate work was, was in like, ecology and evolutionary biology.
Erin Durband
He took he just kept taking classes. He was in school up to the day he passed away. He was still taking classes. So anything that interested him, he would take the class and eventually just started rolling them up into different degrees here and there. So yes, evolutionary biology, ecology.
Tom Heath
And then he moved to Tucson. It was sort of the would have been with the 90s, early 90s, late 80s. Correct.
Erin Durband
I believe he got here. Know the city we met in 91. So I think he was here even in 89. Okay. I would say.
Tom Heath
That makes that makes sense. And, you know, it’s one of I don’t think this is an isolated case to, to to Donovan. But when someone passes, you start to read about them and learn about them and realize the depth of, of, of who they are in such a way that you kind of wish you knew you’d spend that time when they were still with us.
Tom Heath
You could talk to them about it. And I was either doing some research for a show and, you know, I, I love Tucson, I’m involved with Tucson, but mine was sort of accidental. I sort of tripped into it like, oh my gosh, this is really cool. I should learn more with Donovan. Wasn’t that way. He was intentional. He went out and just started voraciously studying Tucson and the history and and wanted to learn about this area.
Tom Heath
And he hadn’t been here that long. He just was so interested in Tucson.
Erin Durband
And it’s true. Yes. He decided he wanted to go into urban planning. And at that time Tucson was kind of boarded up. Yeah. And they the 80s, early 90s, everything. And moved to the malls, moved out of downtown. Businesses were all boarded up, but there was a small effort to, to try to get things moving again.
Erin Durband
And, he was just super interested in the history of every single building. What was it? What kind of businesses? All the way back to, like, George Han’s map? Like, oh, man, that’s what we that’s what we were looking at, when things were stables and little markets and things like that. Little inns, all the way to the modern time at the time.
Tom Heath
And now here’s a here’s a moment of truth for Aaron. Was this interesting to you? Or. You’re like, this guy is crazy. What did I get myself into it?
Erin Durband
It was interesting and I was along for the ride, but it was just kind of like my life. Every day, you know, with Donovan, I knew everything that was going on downtown. Now I’m kind of in the dark. I go walk downtown and I’m like, oh, that’s new. And oh, what’s going on here? But with him, I knew everything.
Erin Durband
I knew everything that was coming, everything that was going, everybody that was planning something behind the scenes. It was just really neat to be along for the ride.
Tom Heath
Well, from a professional standpoint, you know, his his curiosity wasn’t idle and he moved that into, you know, I know he was the director of the, I think the first director or one of the early directors of the Tucson Downtown Alliance, which eventually evolved into the Downtown Tucson Partnership. But during his time, like you’re saying, this was this was in the late 90s, early, early aughts, and Tucson was not like downtown was not that thriving spot.
Tom Heath
So he, he was put in a in a position to to try to make that a, make that a reality. And I was on the ground floor of of all those transformations.
Erin Durband
That’s right. And then you and he wanted to be part of any group or board or committee, anything he could do, he would walk the streets, he would find visitors. Where are you going? Do you need help getting there? If it was all about the connection.
Tom Heath
Yeah. And that and that.
Erin Durband
Stuff, actually.
Tom Heath
You know, like the second Saturday effort and and, you know, the film for all these things that had he had his, his hands on was just amazing. I knew he was involved. But to, to be in such so quietly and, and humbly, you know, he wasn’t out there saying, I’m making all this happen. It seemed like he was just very interested in it happening, whether he was credited or not.
Erin Durband
That’s correct. Yeah. He just wanted he wanted things to happen. It’s happening downtown. Remember that phrase from from the Alliance? It’s happening downtown. And that was just being to him anything he did in the film, the film festivals, the talk festivals, Tucson Thunder. Remember that one? I don’t remember any event that could happen downtown. That was the Harley-Davidson stuff on that motorcycle.
Erin Durband
I mean, even motorcycles. He did not ride a motorcycle, but he was just interested in connecting any event to any anybody that could get their eyes on downtown Tucson. And an event could happen there, or somebody could build a business or anything. We could get it. It was important to.
Tom Heath
Him why I met Donovan for the first time. Middle like 2015 ish when I when I had start to started to get involved with what’s downtown in its development. And at the time then he was the administrator for Park Tucson. And so that’s how I got to know him, was the parking guy. And I had no idea of all this history that had led him to that.
Tom Heath
And I remember asking him at some point what what excited him about parking, like, how did he get into parking? He was like, I think it was on one of the podcast. And again, his his data driven mine was just like, this is how you like parking is is it? This is this is all the data you need.
Tom Heath
You can tell who’s going where, who’s staying, how many people make everything about parking for him. It was it was so exciting. I could not believe someone was that into parking?
Erin Durband
Yeah. He would go out in the evenings, like 11:00 at night, midnight, 2:00 in the morning and do parking counts downtown and fourth Avenue. And there’s data driven mine. Just like what you said. He wanted to know who was parking where and for how long, and how many people were on a block. And how could we squeeze in more parking?
Erin Durband
You have to manage parking. And people are like, why isn’t the parking just free? Well, it used to be free on Fourth Avenue. And who was parking there? It was. All the students from the University of Arizona would park there for eight hours and go to class. It was the downtown employees that would park there for eight hours and go to work.
Erin Durband
And then the people who wanted to shop Fourth Avenue couldn’t park there. So he was instrumental in bringing parking to Fourth Avenue. And then he, you know, turned it into the technology or, you know, using an app as money and all of that. And you have to and now people can drive up Fourth Avenue and maybe find a parking spot and go shopping and go to a restaurant.
Tom Heath
Yeah, I remember the.
Erin Durband
Crazy those.
Tom Heath
Conversations about, wait, if you want to make parking better, you need to charge for it. And free parking is the worst thing you can do for a community with limited parking. Well, that’s, Aaron Durbin and, her guest in the background there. Joining the conversation, we’re talking about the legacy of her, her late husband, Donovan Durbin.
Tom Heath
And, we’re laying the foundation for, the second half of the show where we talk about an effort underway to, rename the Sixth Avenue underpass in his honor. My name is Tom Heath, and you’re listening to life along the streetcar in downtown radio 99.1 FM, streaming on downtown radio.org also available for podcast on life along the streetcar.org.
Tom Heath
Welcome back. We’re, joined today by Erin Durbin. She is, telling us about the legacy of her, her late husband, Donovan, who’s impact is, well, much greater than anything we can cover in a in a 30 minute show. So we are heading to some of the highlights, and, we appreciate her time. Talk about an upcoming effort.
Tom Heath
An ongoing effort, I should say, with an upcoming, vote to, to rename the Sixth Avenue underpass and Donovan’s honor. We’ll get a little bit more of that, history of Donovan and how you can provide some public feedback to the city. If this is an effort, you want to, weigh in on. Was he like that, like in his personal life?
Tom Heath
Was he like, we’re not going to see that move. It only has 73 and Rotten Tomatoes. We’re going to go see this movie. It has an 87.
Tom Heath
Pretty much very pretty much yeah.
Erin Durband
Yeah. His brain man, we just, I, he could tell you anybody’s phone number. Anybody, any address, anybody’s name. He recognized faces like crazy. I am not that way. You’re going to have to introduce yourself every time you meet me. Every time you meet me. Because I don’t remember any of that. But even if we were at a.
Erin Durband
This is crazy. We would go to a ball game, say, in Phoenix. I’d think one ballpark. That’s how I know it. It’s been one ballpark back in the day. And he would, with his binoculars, look across the way in this giant stadium full of all these people. And he’s like, hey, that’s the guy. In 1974, when we took a family trip to this national park, and he was a park ranger and Harry is I’m like, what?
Erin Durband
How do you how do you recognize these people? How do you remember these deep? Well, how do you do it, Aaron?
Tom Heath
Maybe. Maybe he just knew you wouldn’t remember. And so he just made it up.
Erin Durband
I didn’t even know him. In 1974, I was the year old. She did that right. He just remembered everybody. And, so you could call him and say, hey, who owns X property? Or who do I call about this thing I want to do? And he would just be able to rattle off the name, the phone numbers and connect the people.
Tom Heath
Well, the, you know, I think I think his legacy is the more people learn and I and again, once he passed, there was so much outpouring from our community. And I mean, his, his, his memorial service had to be held at the Fox Theater because there were so many people that wanted to attend and, and, you know, his his love for Tucson and his impact is undeniable.
Tom Heath
And, and, you know, I know there was a foundation started not too long ago, and it’s, I love the name. It’s it’s Donovan. Dean Durbin supports Tucson. Not supported supports that. You know, his legacy is still there, still having that impact, in Tucson. And we’ll link to that, that foundation on our, our Facebook page so people can get a chance to see it.
Tom Heath
But there’s a, an event coming up. There’s like a, there’s a deadline. I think there is a deadline for people to register comments with the city about a proposal to rename the, the Sixth Avenue underpass and, on a, honor Donovan. So can you tell us a little bit about that effort and what needs to happen?
Erin Durband
Yes, we started talking about legacy projects, shortly after he passed away last year with his family and with different, city officials. And we were in Ward six office talking about, and all kinds of people that we brought together. And we were talking about, you know, what can we do to honor Donovan? And they talked about, you know, renaming the Pennington Street garage.
Erin Durband
And his life wasn’t just parking. You know, he did all kinds of different things. So I was like, well, that would be cool. But what what else? And Andy Squires said, well, what about the Sixth Avenue underpass? What if we renamed that? And instantly I was like, that’s it, because it’s historic and it’s all about history. It’s a connection point, which is huge and it needs to be done.
Erin Durband
The Fourth Avenue underpass got all the love back when the streetcar came. The Stone Avenue underpass is fine and it’s, you know, got some love with the new bridge aviation connection. But there’s this Sixth Avenue underpass, which is cute and little, but it needs a lot of help. Needs some love. It’s great for pedestrians. It connects fourth Avenue and sixth Avenue and seventh Street and all of the new stuff that’s happening over there.
Erin Durband
I was like, that’s it. That’s what I think it should be. And that’s kind of where the ball started rolling. And we, me and his siblings started putting together the Donovan Durbin supports, supports, Tucson Foundation. That name his brother came up with that name and it’s and supports it’s true. We still want to continue putting together projects that, support Tucson through Donovan’s name.
Erin Durband
And so the Sixth Avenue underpass. And then we decided to pull together a public art portion, which is going to be his historic postcard collection that he collected for years and years and years. They’re going to be made into these big two foot by three foot tiles and put on the retaining walls of the underpass.
Tom Heath
That’s fantastic. I had mentioned to someone that I had heard that there was an effort underway to rename the the, the underpass in Donovan’s name, and they’re like, are they are they are they mad at him? Because that’s not a very pretty underpass. And they said, no, I think they’re going to renovate it to like, oh, okay.
Erin Durband
Yes. Yeah. No, I think I see what you’re saying on that because it does if you walk through it now and it’s.
Tom Heath
But there’s so much vibrancy on both sides of it, you know, there’s so much vibrancy that it definitely need that needs regardless, it needs an update and it’s a little safer, connection. But yeah. And there’s, there’s a good website. The city has out, which we’ll also put on our Facebook page with some images of some of those postcards you’re talking about and how it would look.
Tom Heath
But they’re, they’re, they’re looking for feedback. So that, you know, the city, obviously, they have to, follow the prescribed channel, which is what our proposals made the public needs to comment and input, any, any feedback that they have. And there is a deadline for that which is coming up in a couple of weeks. That’s why I wanted to get you on the show here.
Erin Durband
Yeah. October 21st. We have, we can collect feedback until then.
Tom Heath
Okay. And that goes to the city, or does that go through the how do we how do we provide the feedback to.
Erin Durband
I believe it’s to through your council office or to the mayor, mayor and council. We’ve gotten a little bit sorry, we’ve gotten a little bit through, the foundation, okay. Through the email on the foundation, but it should be directed to the.
Tom Heath
Council person and actually, I’m just looking at the website now and it does it there’s it says to send it to Michael Graham at Tucson az.gov. So so we’ll link that. But I think I think like you’re saying if you get it to your council member, if you get it to your ward, office, they’re going to forward that on them in the cities.
Tom Heath
There’s no one in Tucson on the city council that is not aware of Donovan’s. Impact. And and we’ll be looking for that feedback. Correct. Well, Aaron, I really appreciate your time. I know there’s a lot going on, and, I’m hopeful for a successful outcome of this and would love to stay in touch with you about this and any effort that the Donovan Dean Durbin supports Tucson effort.
Tom Heath
Is is is doing with the this these are things that, you know, with the with the little reach that I have through this show. And I would love to get that out to the world because he’s, you know, he’s he was someone I considered a friend, a colleague. And, you know, since his passing, I’ve looked much more as like, you know, as a mentor that I wish I had spent more time learning from him than I, than I did, but he’s,
Tom Heath
He’s a good. He’s a good man. Support. Doing good things in Tucson. Even after his passing, I agree.
Erin Durband
Thank you so much.
Tom Heath
That’s Erin Durbin. She is the, widow of Donovan Durbin, who we’ve been talking about today and his impact in Tucson and focused a lot on the urban core. But that legacy radiates, just like the urban cores, that heartbeat of of a city. His impacts, you know, it made Tucson as a whole a better place to be.
Tom Heath
My name is Tom Heath. You’re listening to Lifelong Streetcar, downtown radio 99.1 FM streaming on Downtown radio.org and podcast is available on life along the streetcar.org.
Tom Heath
Well, thanks for joining us for episode 310. We’ll have some links on our Facebook page to, the Donovan Dean Durbin supports Tucson Foundation as well as the city’s plans for the Sixth Avenue underpass. Should the, they move forward with it and the way to contact and provide some, public input to the mayor and council.
Tom Heath
So they have all the information, at their disposal. And if there’s things you would, like us to cover on the show, please let us know. Email us. This this, feature is brought to us by one of our listeners and so thankful that it that it came up. But you can hit us up on Facebook and Instagram.
Tom Heath
Probably the best way to do to connect with us. And then on our web, on our website, lifelong street car.org. There’s a contact button. We’re looking for hidden gems typically around the urban core, but we’re doing a few road trips to the ignite Science Museum. Last week, my talk about miracle. Sorry, Sunshine Mile coming up here in a in a future episode.
Tom Heath
So we’re, we’re open to things, mostly in the urban core, but also things that are right around us that that do have an impact and not go anywhere. Because Ted, Brazil ski is up in just a couple of minutes with words and work, and he’ll be followed at the top of the hour by Ty Logan and heavy mentor.
Tom Heath
We always appreciate you, spending a little time with us on Sundays. And, if you are going to head out to meet yourself, enjoy, the food and, and, spread the word about the amazing, atmosphere and culture we have here in Tucson where James Ford us is our production specialist. My name is Tom Heath.
Tom Heath
I’m the host and producer. Each week our music is provided courtesy of Orion Hood. And they, let us use Dillinger Days. And, in honor of Donovan, I asked Aaron one of his, some of his local local bands. She gave me a few that he enjoyed, and I chose, Sophia Rankin and the Sound, and this is a song from 2021, and the album is called Too Close to the Riptide.
Tom Heath
And I chose the song because it seems very appropriate to those that leave a legacy and an impact on others. And the song is called The People I Have Known. I hope you have a great week and tune in next Sunday for more life along the streetcar.
