WILMINGTON — Donna Lee Girardot lost her battle with cancer and went to her rest on April 11, 2023. She was proceeded in death by her beloved husband of 52 years, David Charles Girardot, Jr. She is survived by her children, David of Wilmington and Stephanie (husband Tom Haaker of Weston, FL). She was blessed with two grandsons: Luke and Ryan Haaker.
Donna retired in December 2014 as the executive officer of the Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association and Founder and CEO of BASE (Business Alliance for a Sound Economy).
Before moving to Wilmington to join her husband who was UNCW Assistant Vice Chancellor of Business Affairs 25 years ago, Donna was executive director of the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce serving Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, Portsmouth and Suffolk, Virginia. She had previously worked in the U.S. Senate, Virginia General Assembly, owned two businesses and taught for the Korean National Tourism Corporation in Seoul, S. Korea.
On December 7, 2020, she was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine by Governor Roy Cooper for her many contributions to the state of North Carolina and the region.
Donna was a registered lobbyist and has served or is presently serving on numerous national and state boards and committees, including four terms as chairman of the New Hanover County Planning Board and four consecutive years as chairman of the Wilmington International Airport Authority — N.C.’s first woman Airport Authority chair.
She served as a board member for the Greater Wilmington Chamber of Commerce; as chairman of the NHC Technical Review Committee; member of the NHC Unified Development Ordinance Task Force; a Camillus Minister at the Basilica Shrine of St. Mary’s Catholic Church; UNCW Master in Public Administration Advisory Board; the Wilmington Rotary Club; and has been a WILMA mentor for the Women to Watch initiative for the last six years.
In 2019, 2021 and again in 2022, she was recognized by the Greater Wilmington Business Journal as one of the region’s “100 Most Influential People.” Donna is a Wilmington-Cape Fear Home Builders Association Hall of Fame recipient, was past chairman of the Cape Fear United Way, and the recipient of the 2007 Elderhaus Community Service Excellence in Profession Award.
She was chosen by Greater Wilmington Business as one of 10 “Women in High Places” and was a 2008 Cape Fear Woman of Achievement nominee. She previously served on the NC DENR Business & Industry Environmental Roundtable and co-authored with Spencer Rogers of NC SeaGrant a FEMA and National Flood Insurance Program-endorsed brochure on flood rate maps.
She has taught a class at UNCW in lobbying, PACs, and special interest groups; served as a board member of the North Carolina Coastal Resources Law, Planning and Policy Center, formed in 2004 by the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law and the NC Sea Grant Program. She testified before the NC Senate Insurance Committee and the NCJUA for 10 years or more on homeowners insurance on behalf of coastal residents.
Donna was appointed by the NC Division of Coastal Management to the 2008 Ocean Policy Steering Committee, the NC20 Board of Directors, SC-NC SeaGrants’ Climate Extension Advisory Committee, and was a member of the NC Estuarine Shoreline Steering Committee.
Donna was a generous and loving individual, a conciliator, loved by her family, cherished by her friends and respected and admired by all who knew her.
In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that you please make donations to:
Lower Cape Fear LifeCare Foundation, 1414 Physicians Drive, Wilmington, NC 28401 or online at www.lifecare.org/donate or Kids Making It at 617 Castle Street, Wilmington NC 28401 or online at www.kidsmakingit.org/donate.
