After Homer Donathan earned his Bachelor of Education at Findlay College in 1917, he served in France with the 308 Motor Transport Corps during World War I. After the War, he became a school superintendent, first in the Rawson and then in the Liberty Township school systems west of Findlay. He was elected as one of three alumni representatives to the College Board of Trustees in 1927. His familiarity with the community served him well as president in steering the College through the worst years of the Depression when he became president in 1929.
Like his predecessors, President Donathan continued to push for accreditation, hiring six new faculty members, including four holding doctoral degrees, to head departments. Only one of the new faculty members was from the Churches of God, but the action saved Findlay College as a bachelor's degree institution and managed to retain Ohio Department of Education accreditation of the teacher training program. In 1931, President Dunathan reapplied to the Ohio College Association, with Findlay College finally admitted, and in 1933 the institution gained accreditation from the North Central Association. He also obtained membership for Findlay College in the Association of American Colleges in 1934.
President Dunathan was adept at dealing with Depression financing. As regular revenue sources shrunk, he and the Board practiced rigid economies which meant thinner paychecks but regular paydays. He also was a capable fundraiser and stewarded the College through the fire damage to Old Main in 1938. From April 1943 to his resignation in February 1946, he was on leave-of-absence, serving as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy during World War II. He later became a professor of education at the University of Toledo. In 1963, Findlay College granted him an honorary doctorate. He was a member of the Churches of God, and his wife, Grace W. Grove Dunathan, was the daughter of Rev. C.H. Grove, the editor of Sunday school literature for the Churches of God.