"[1] Donk was born in Situbondo, East Java in 1908, and completed secondary school in The Hague, Netherlands.
As a graduate student in mycology he completed the work for his 1931 "Revisie van de Nederlandse Heterobasidiomyceteae" (Revision of the Dutch Heterobasidiomycetes).
He completed his studies and attained a doctorate degree in 1933 with the second part of his work, Revisie van de Nederlandse Heterobasidiomyceteae II.
He was involved in the development of a modern system to classify the Aphyllophorales and influenced nomenclatural rules for mushrooms.
After returning to Holland, he was the head of the Mycological Department at Rijksherbarium in Leiden from 1956 to 1972, and a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences from 1954 to 1960.