Eugene Edward McDonnell (October 18, 1926 – August 17, 2010) was a computer science pioneer and long-time contributor to the programming language siblings APL and J.

After serving as an infantry corporal in the U.S. Army in World War II, he attended the University of Kentucky, graduating in 1949 summa cum laude, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

He was awarded a First Year Graduate Fellowship to Harvard University, where he studied comparative literature, particularly Dante's Divine Comedy.

When he met Frost, he was delighted to find that they had both committed the 193 lines of John Milton's "Lycidas" to memory.

He holds U.S. patent 3,400,376 (3 September 1968) "Information Transfer Control System" allowing communication between two users.