MARY ALICE MCDONALD

1926 - 2016

McDONALD, Mary Alice (Laughrea) 90, died Thursday, September 8, 2016 at Maryville Nursing Home in Beaverton, Oregon, after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was born in Waltham, Massachusetts in 1926, to Julia (Lyons), a registered nurse, and Joseph Edward Laughrea, a U.S. Postal Carrier. Mary was the first of two girls (her sister, Virginia followed three years later). Mary grew up on Otis Street in Watertown, MA, and graduated from Watertown High School in 1943. She was awarded a full scholarship to Boston University (BU), and graduated summa cum laude, earning a B.S. in Business Administration (1947). Mary was one of the few women to graduate that year from the College of Business Administration. She worked as an accountant at Price Waterhouse in Boston immediately following graduation. In her capacity as Editor of the BU Newspaper, and as a member Student Council, she met her future husband, Hugh Robert (Bob) McDonald (deceased March 3, 2004), over weekly dinners held for student leaders by Daniel L. Marsh, President of Boston University. Bob was All University Student Body President (1947, 1948). They married in St. Patrick's Catholic Church in Watertown, MA on June 19, 1949, and settled that year in Portland, OR. In 1957 they moved to Tualatin, OR, where they lived in that home for 47 years. In Portland, Mary worked for Norris Beggs & Simpson (NBS) through 1951, at which point she gave birth to the first of her five children: Hugh Stephen, followed by Janet Mary, Joseph David, Kenneth Robert (deceased July 22, 1994), and Clifford John. Mary returned to full-time teaching for Northwest School of Business, Portland, OR in 1967. She worked for the Portland Jobs Corps for several years, before taking a position as Sr. Accountant for Portland School District No.1J. In addition to her remaining four living children, her sixteen grandchildren and four great grandchildren survive her. Services were held September 17, 2016 at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church, Lake Oswego, OR. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, that consideration be given to a donation to the Alzheimer's Association of America, or to The Broadway Rose Theatre, Tigard, OR.

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