George Edward McDonough

The Rev. George Edward McDonough, son of the late George Francis and Helen Murzyn McDonough, was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut on March 25, 1924 and passed away on August 17, 2011. He attended St. Augustine's Cathedral Elementary School and in 1941 graduated from Central High School in that city. After completing his freshman year at Middlebury College and a summer session at the Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont, he served for three years in Company D of the 594th Engineer Amphibious Regiment, Army of the United States, during World War II and was honorably discharged with the rank of sergeant. In 1947 he joined Joint Task Force One as a member of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution assigned to the Division of Radiological Safety at the Atomic Bomb Tests at Bikini Atoll. Subsequently he enrolled under the G.I. Bill at the University of California in Berkeley where he received his B.A. degree and the Emily Chamberlain Cook Prize in Poetry. The award was established by Yale University Professor Albert S. Cook in 1909 for the most outstanding poem, or group of poems, by an undergraduate which, as noted in the Minutes of the Regents of the University of California, "reflects honor upon the University, when viewed in the light of the best precedents published in England and in this country." In 1949 George met a nurse, Roxy Elizabeth Jensen, while he was a patient in the Cowell memorial Hospital on the Berkeley campus, and they were married that year in a ceremony performed by the Rev. Dr. George F. Patterson. Already possessing her master's degree in nursing from Case-Western Reserve University, she and her husband moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she joined the staff of the Baltimore Eye, Ear, Nose and Throat Clinic and he enrolled as a graduate student at The Johns Hopkins University. Upon his receiving the M.A. degree on the nomination of the Faculty of Philosophy, George and Roxy returned to California where he earned the Master of Divinity degree from the Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. His theological studies completed, he was called to his first parish in San Francisco as an associate minister. During his pastorate the McDonough's first child was born at the Stanford University but died almost immediately. A second baby, also born at Stanford, turned out to be a healthy vivacious girl, whom they named Tina-Christi. A short pastorate in Eugene, Oregon was then followed by one in Clackamas, Oregon, during which time a son was born in Emmanuel Hospital in Portland, and named Mark Andrew. While serving the Clackamas Church, George held concurrent teaching positions in the English Departments of Multnomah, Portland State and Lewis and Clark Colleges. In 1957 he decided to go into higher education full-time as an associate professor at Cascade College. He remained there for five years during one of which he also was the minister of the Bethany Community Church in Portland. In 1963 George completed work on another graduate degree, the Master of Librarianship, at the University of Washington. During the next decades he held professorships at Chicago State University, the University of Maryland, the University of Washington, Hamline University and Seattle Pacific University. When he retired from Seattle Pacific in 1988 after twenty-one years of service, the Board of Trustees honored him with the following resolution: WHEREAS, George E. McDonough has ministered to the students and faculty of Seattle Pacific University in a multitude of ways, as Professor of English, University Librarian, poet, colleague, and mentor; and WHEREAS, his concern for others and his support of individuals in times of trial have been experienced by students and faculty colleagues alike; and WHEREAS, his concept of a liberal education within God's kingdom so aptly embodies the ideals of Seattle Pacific University: therefore, be it RESOLVED, that we congratulate George E. McDonough for his contribution to our community and extend to him our deepest appreciation for his commitment to the goals of Christian higher education and his eloquent articulation of the liberal arts within that realm; and be it RESOLVED FURTHER, that wke bestow on him the status of Emeritus Professor of English with all the rights and privileges accompanying that rank, understanding that no rank or honor can ever fully convey our knowledge of how richly he has deserved all it is in our power to bestow. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, this resolution has been adopted by the Board of Trustees of Seattle Pacific University on this Twentieth day of May, Nineteen hundred and eighty-eight. From 1988 to 1992 George home schooled his two grandsons, Cleon Peterson and Leigh Ledare. It was a period of great joy for him and forged an indissoluble bond between them. The older, Cleon, went on to complete his MFA degree at the Cranbrook Academy in Bloomington Hills, Michigan, and the younger, Leigh, his BFA and his M.A. degrees at the Rhode Island School of Design and Columbia University, respectively. In 1992 George was called out of retirement to the Professorship in Theological Bibliography at Western Evangelical Seminary, now one of the graduate divisions of George Fox University. He remained in that position for five years and finally and unequivocally ended his teaching career in 1998. During his years of professional preparation George received scholarships and fellowships from Middlebury College, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Chicago. Later, along with his teaching and administrative responsibilities, he served two terms as President of the Northwest Association of Private Colleges and Universities Libraries, a consortium of the leading private institutions of higher learning in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. He was the Chair of the Division of Archives and History of the United Methodist Conference of Minnesota. He was an organizer and leading participant in the Conference on Medical Librarianship co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare; the Medical Association and the University of Washington. He did advanced studies in medical librarianship at the Catholic University of America; the Washington D.C. Hospital Center; the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda in Bethesda; and the University of Chicago. He served on various committees of the American Library Association and the Washington Library Association. He was a visiting Lecturer in Educational Administration at Long Island University, a speaker at American Anthropological Association meetings and an Examiner in Anthropology at Macalester College. He was a member of the Editorial Committee of the Zondervan Publish Company-Christian Scholars Press, Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was a guest speaker at the Conference on Organizational Design and Development, Graduate School of Business, Harvard University; on Christianity and the Political Order, Gordon College, on Christianity and the History of Western Thought, King's College; and Principal co-investigator, National Science Foundation-Hamline University Information System Design. George's work has been widely published and has appeared in the Saturday Review; the New England Journal of Medicine; Poetry Australia; Anthropology and Humanism quarterly; the Literary Magazine of Middlebury College; Christianity Today; Christian Century; Medical Heritage; The John Hopkins Review; Pacific Search; The French Journal of Anesthesiology; The Christian Review; Catholic Library World; and the Catholic Educational Review. he is the author of COLLECTED POEMS (University of California Press); THE FARMINGTON PLAN (Institute of Research, Seattle Pacific University); A LONG PERSPECTIVE; POEMS (Seattle Pacific University; and co-author, with James Spradley, of ANTHROPOLOGY THROUGH LITERATURE. George is survived by his daughter, Tina-Christi Peterson; his son, Mark Andrew McDonough; grandson Cleon and his wife Kelly Peterson; grandson Leigh Ledare; great-grandchildren Aubrey and Coco Peterson; and his brother, William F. McDonough of Trumbull, Connecticut. His friend C. M. Jones provided loving support and companionship for many years.