David C MacDonald

David Craig MacDonald, 76, died Jan. 27, 2025, of respiratory illness. Born Nov. 16, 1948 in New York City, the son of Dr. George E. MacDonald and Verda R. “Tess” MacDonald, he grew up in Newton, MA, and in his youth often spent time each summer at the family home in Spofford, NH, once even bicycling the 100 miles to get there.

He attended Ithaca College for one year, then moved to New York City, where he worked in bookstores and as a photographer’s studio assistant. He and his first wife, Suzanne Fink, lived in Belgium for a time when Fink's father, an Air Force officer, was assigned to NATO. The couple returned to New York and were later divorced. He continued to live in New York for a time, and then moved back to Newton, where he found work at a camera store before moving to Portland. ME.

He married his second wife, Cate DiMarzio, and they lived in Portland for a number of years. While in Portland, he worked as a photographer for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. He also worked at the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, ME. He always traveled with a hard hat and boots in his car so he could go wherever the shot took him, but he had a special eye for the full-page-width photographs used to grace the top of various sections of the newspaper and the web site. As a news photographer, he traveled several times to Archangel, Russia, Portland's sister city, always bringing his hosts much appreciated American-made Levi jeans and toilet paper. Divorced a second time, he later moved into the family home in Spofford, where he worked as a photographer and book seller in Keene, NH. Predeceased by his parents, he is survived by his brother, James E. MacDonald of Natick, MA, and sisters, Jean E. MacDonald of Jamaica Plain, MA, and Susan G. Roy of Park City, UT. There will be no services. As a lover of animals and an advocate for peace, friends who wish may donate in his name to the Monadnock Humane Society, 101 West Swanzey Rd., Swanzey, NH 03446, or Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), 40 Rector St., 16th Floor, New York, NY 10006.

The Cremation Society of New Hampshire has been entrusted with arrangements. To view an online tribute, leave a message of condolence or for more information please visit www.csnh.com.