Gary Donner was born on March 17, 1953 in New York and has spent his life dividing himself between his two houses in Bluffton, South Carolina and New York.

 Divorced and remarried, he shared the hobby of golf with his second wife Irene.

He worked as a partner in an IT consulting company.

After playing for about a year in high school, he stopped for almost 30 and started casually but, this time, continuously until he became a regular figure on the American bridge circuit. In the latter part of his life he was a passionate mentor of American youth bridge.

Gary, who loved the sea and its creatures, died on August 23, 2022 after a long battle with pancreatic cancer after captaining the transnational mixed team that won bronze at the World Bridge Series.