Don McDonald

Don McDonald, resident of Los Altos, died on June 23, 2017 of heart failure, at age 98. He is survived by his wife, Audrey; daughter Lynne Royer (Dave) of La Pine, OR; daughter Valerie Bolinger (Bruce) of Nicktown, PA, and son Donald C. McDonald Jr. (Sandra) of Lenoir, NC; seven grandchildren, fifteen greatgrandchildren and one great-great grandchild. He was the stepfather of Audrey’s two daughters, Karen Van Buren (Paul) of Los Altos and Kathleen Fulmer (Dan) of San Francisco.

When he moved to Los Altos in 1970, Mr. McDonald wanted to learn more about the early days of the city. He volunteered at the Los Altos History Museum as a docent and a member of Education & Oral History Committees. He wrote historical items for the Museum’s Under the Oaks Newsletter and for the Los Altos Town Crier newspaper. In 2000 he curated the History House exhibit, “Los Altos as Homefront in World War II”. He served as Los Altos Sister Cities Vice President for Bendigo Australia, visiting there with Audrey to represent Los Altos in their 1992 Easter celebration. He served two terms as a member of the Los Altos Historical Commission. He was honored in 2000 as a recipient of the Los Altos/Los Altos Hills Joint Community Volunteer Service Award. In celebration of his 90th birthday, the City Council proclaimed July 25, 2008 to be “Don McDonald Day”. In 2010 Don was honored by the Town Crier as “Los Altan of the Year”.

Mr. McDonald was active in other Peninsula organizations. He volunteered at the Bechtel International Center at Stanford as a teacher of idiomatic speech and as a conversational partner with foreign scholars. From 1974 to 1995 he taught poetry classes at the Palo Alto Adult School. He was a member of the Peninsula Civil War Round Table (President in 1991), Great War Society, Palo Alto Historical Association, Mountain View Historical Society, Los Altos Hills Historical Society, Barron Park Association, Quicksilver County Park Association, Japanese American Museum of San Jose, Moffett Field Historical Association, and the Society for Aviation History.

Don was born July 25, 1918, at Indianapolis, IN. His family lived in Lakewood, OH 1921-29, and then Glendale, CA. He graduated from Glendale College in 1938 and from UCLA in 1940, earning a General Secondary Credential in 1941. That year he joined the USMC Reserves and was called to active duty in 1942. He switched to the Navy and, after basic training in San Diego, spent the remainder of WWII in Washington, DC, as a cryptanalyst in OP20-G, working on Japanese Navy codes and ciphers. In 1946 he returned to Glendale and civilian life as a Title Officer for the Los Angeles Title Insurance & Trust Co. As a Lieutenant in the USNR, he also taught cryptanalysis for the USNR in Los Angeles.

As Lt. McDonald, he was called back to USN active duty during the Korean Conflict as a cryptanalyst in the Armed Forces Security Agency in Washington. In 1953 he resigned his Navy commission and became a civil servant in the National Security Agency. He had two foreign duty postings: as Deputy Senior United States Liaison Officer Melbourne (1954-57) and as Deputy (later Chief) of NSA’s largest overseas facility at Fuchinobe, Japan (1961-65). For his work in this latter post, he was decorated by the Korean Government and received NSA’s Meritorious Civilian Award. He retired from NSA in 1970.

Don was married to La Verne Ingram of Glendale, CA, in 1941. After the birth of Lynne, Valerie and Don Jr., they divorced in 1948. The next year he married La Von Sundry of Fergus Falls, MN, who became a devoted mother to his children. She died in 1969 and, after retiring, Don moved to Los Altos to marry Audrey Harper, whose husband, Bob Harper, had also recently died. The friendship of Audrey, Bob, and Don dated from their student days in Southern California, where they were part of a circle of friends who enjoyed symphonic music and opera. Bob and Don ushered at the Philharmonic and Shrine Auditoriums and the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles. It was there in 1938 that Bob and Don met Audrey selling programs. Soon afterwards, Don and his girlfriend went with Audrey and Bob on their first date.

Pursuing his interest in Baroque music as a recorder player and percussionist, Don participated in a number of Early Music concerts in Melbourne, and became a founding member of the Washington Recorder Society. He organized and led the Silver Spring (MD) Consort, which performed at the Silver Spring Library in 1957-61.

Throughout their married life, Don and Audrey travelled extensively. They drove throughout the 50 States, Canada and Mexico. They made 20 trips to Australia, several trips to Europe, and voyages to the Canadian Arctic and Antarctica. They travelled around the world on freighters. They participated in ten Elderhostel programs in the US and one in France.

Memorial donations may be made to the Los Altos History Museum.