Remembering those who have succumbed to COVID-19.
He decorated for St. Patrick’s Day, cooked up huge barbecues and loved photography
Manhattan Beach resident Patrick McGough was well known for his barbecues and St. Patrick’s Day parties.
He was a straight shooter who liked to have fun, sister Jennifer McGough said.
“I have stuff that I’m still finding in his house that he would decorate his home and everything else for St. Patty’s Day,” said his sister, who lives in Victorville.
She’s been looking through his home because he died of complications from COVID-19 on Aug. 29. Patrick McGough was 75.
Linda Stammich, a friend from Redondo Beach, recalled that he would cook corned beef, cabbage, carrots and potatoes for 25 to 30 people on St. Patrick’s Day for many years. The barbecues, which always included his Great Dane Harley, celebrated the summer holidays, she said.
“His parties were the only time many of us saw each other, but it was always great fun,” Stammich said.
An avid volleyball player and runner, McGough loved the ocean and Manhattan Beach, where he made his home for nearly 50 years, his sister said.
Jennifer McGough said her brother bought a small home with two bedrooms, a kitchen and a small living room. Over the years he added on, including a three-car garage, another living room and a larger bedroom.
Born Dec. 12, 1944, in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, McGough moved to California in 1962, a year before graduating from high school.
After being drafted in 1969 during the Vietnam War, he joined the Air Force and was stationed in Hawaii. After the service, he took classes at El Camino College and became a subcontractor, working in electronic surveillance with the Los Angeles Police Department, where he had a four-decade career.
After coming down with COVID-19, McGough went into a coma. His sister said he was going downhill fast.
“He didn’t want to be on life support … so I had to make up my mind to take him off of life support, he was not going to get better at all,” she said. “So what made it really, really bad, and I hear it all the time. I couldn’t be there for him. I couldn’t go see him.”
In addition to being physically active, McGough loved photography.
He would sit by the Manhattan Beach Pier for hours waiting to “take the perfect picture,” Jennifer McGough said.