Dave
Doran,
the son of a paper-mill worker, was
born in Albany, New York, in 1910. He joined the American
Communist Party in
1930 and worked as a trade union organizer with agricultural workers
(Alabama), textile workers (North Carolina) and coal miners (Pennsylvania).
By 1936 he was the party's director of trade union
activities.
In 1937 Doran joined the
Abraham Lincoln Battalion, a unit that
volunteered to fight for the Popular Front
government during the Spanish
Civil War. After
arriving in Spain he joined the other International
Brigades at Albacete.
Doran was appointed brigade
commissar and worked closely with Robert
Minor, the local
American representative
to the Comintern in Spain.
In March 1938 Doran was
sent to the Aragón front. Later
that month Dave
Doran was
killed along with Robert Merriman
while fighting at
Gandesa.
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