RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- John F. "Jack" McDonnell, a World War II veteran and father of Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, died Tuesday. He was 94.
The elder McDonnell had been ill for years with Alzheimer's disease.
Based in England during World War II, John McDonnell flew aboard bombers that made sorties into Nazi-occupied Europe. He served for 23 years in the Air Force.
The governor is the eldest of five children whom Jack and Emma McDonnell raised in a strict Irish-Catholic household in northern Virginia. In an 2009 interview, the governor described his father as "a tough, Boston Irish-Catholic Air Force officer who wasn't afraid to use the belt."
McDonnell said his father "encouraged me to work hard, dream big, and not make excuses in life and all things are possible."
"As the son of an Irish immigrant he lived the American Dream. I thank God he lived to attend my inauguration," McDonnell said in a statement.