Joseph Samuel Donat, painter, printmaker, and educator, was born in San Diego, California, on June 20, 1919, to Ida Cepek and Anthony Soucek Donat. He grew up in Bakersfield, California and attended Bakersfield High School; his diploma bore the gold seal of the California Scholarship Federation. Donat graduated from Pomona College in Los Angeles in 1938 and was a student at Claremont College when he received his draft notice. He served in the United States Navy during World War II.

After his discharge from the Navy, Donat returned to Southern California. The 1950 census lists him living in Signal Hill, an enclave completely surrounded by the city of Long Beach in Southern California, and his income at the time was derived from his business as a mural painter. Donat was later employed by Long Beach City College where he had a long career as an art instructor.

Today, Donat is primarily known for his body of woodengravings. He exhibited at the San Diego Fine Art Gallery (now the San Diego Museum of Art) in 1941 and exhibited his woodengravings, Five Birds and Harlequinade, at the Thirty-third Annual Exhibition of the Society of American Etchers, Gravers, Lithographers, and Woodcutters held at the National Academy Galleries in New York in November 1948. Donat also showed with the Laguna Beach Art Association in 1951. His work is represented in the print collection of the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Joseph Samuel Donat retired to Pasadena, California where he died on September 26, 1998.