John J. Donovan Sr., a well-known former technology and business professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and chairman of a Cambridge consulting company, was shot multiple times last night in the company's parking lot adjacent to the MIT campus, police said last night.
Donovan, who has a 68-acre farm in Hamilton, was listed in serious condition late last night at Massachusetts General Hospital, where police said he was undergoing surgery.
Donovan was apparently shot during a dispute in the parking lot of his business, Cambridge Executive Enterprises, police said last night. He called State Police from his cellphone after the shooting and was conscious when paramedics arrived, Cambridge police said.
''This did not appear to be a random act," said Frank Pasquarello, Cambridge police spokesman. ''We're still trying to piece everything together."
Donovan, who liked to be called ''Professor Donovan," was embroiled in a family feud and contended his children were trying to force him out of his home. His fortune is estimated at $100 million.
In a Globe story that ran in 2004, Donovan called himself a ''visionary." The New York Times called him the Johnny Carson of the executive training circuit. Over the years, he started at least a dozen companies.
''Right now, we are looking at anyone who could be a suspect," Pasquarello said. ''Friends, ex-friends, enemies, relatives, employees, anyone."
Donovan spent three decades teaching electrical engineering and management at MIT before he retired to focus on private business.
Cambridge Executive Enterprises ''is a leading provider of executive education programs," according to an archived company website from 2004.
On the dust jacket of one of his books and on a corporate website, Donovan referred to his ''five wonderful children."
But relations with his family reached a nadir in 2002, when allegations of sexual molestation were made by one of his daughters.
In an affidavit filed in Suffolk Superior Court, the daughter alleged, ''My father, Donovan Sr., abused me sexually when I was a child. The sexual abuse by my father has caused me tremendous pain, psychological trauma, and anguish, which continues to this day." (The Globe is omitting her name, in keeping with its policy of not identifying alleged sexual abuse victims.)
Donovan, in an affidavit, called the allegations ''absolutely false."
As police investigated the scene last night, investigators cordoned off the parking lot of Cambridge Executive Enterprises.
The Vassar Street lot where the shooting took place, is located near a towering dormitory.
As police milled about the area MIT students walked by. Many said they were shocked by the shooting, noting that violent crime rarely occurs in the area.
''I walk here a lot at night, and I always feel safe," said MIT freshman Olay Oyebode, 17.
Cambridge police said no suspects had been arrested last night.
Police in Hamilton, where Donovan has relatives, said they were dispatched in Hamilton to assist with the case.
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