Joseph Sherman Donat, muralist and printmaker, was born to Antony and Ida Donat in San Diego, California, on June 20, 1919. The family moved north to Bakersfield, California, where Joseph attended the Bakersfield High School and acted as president of his senior class. He graduated from Pomona College in 1938.

Donat served in the United States Navy during World War II and the 1950 Census has him living in Signal Hill, Los Angeles. It’s been written that he taught college courses for twenty-five years.

Very little information has surfaced regarding his art career other than exhibiting at the San Diego Art Gallery (now the San Diego Museum of Art) in 1941 and with the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1951. His work is represented in the print collection of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Joseph Sherman Donat died on September 26, 1998, in Pasadena, California and is buried in the San Joaquin National Cemetery in Santa Nella, California.