Donna Draper
Immediate Past President

Donna Draper has been an active board member of Hale Byrnes House since 1984 when she, along with Sarah F. D. Miller, Kip Boden and architect George M. Whiteside III reinstituted the Delaware Society for the Preservation of Antiquities which had been defunct since the house was given to the State as a Bicentennial gift in 1976.
 
Donna is also a director of the New Sweden Centre, past director of the Delaware Swedish Colonial Society, a board member of the Newark Historical Society, a guide at the Newark History Museum, and a docent at the Old Swedes Historic Site. She is Past State Regent of the Delaware State Society of the Daughters of the American Colonists. She has chaired both the 2004 and 2012 Colonists Day Celebrations -- and continues to be involved in this event. An active volunteer at the Newark Senior Center, she is also a board member of the Friends of the Bear Library, a deacon & elder at White Clay Creek Presbyterian Church.
 
In February 2015, Donna, who had already received City of Newark's Jefferson Award, was honored by the State for her volunteer work for Delaware Recreation and Parks Society.
 
Donna & her husband, Milt Draper, Jr., have three sons and six granddaughters. Donna received her BS degree from Central Michigan University. She moved to Newark, Delaware in 1961.