Joseph Patrick McDonald Sr.

Joseph Patrick McDonald Sr., 95, formerly of Carbondale, died Wednesday at Whitestone Care Center, Stroudsburg. He is survived by his wife of 71 years, the former Margaret Mary "Peggy" Ann Pope.

Born in Carbondale, son of the late Patrick Aloysius and Marie McDonough McDonald, he was a member of St. Rose of Lima Church, Carbondale, where in the 1970s he served as the first lay lector and later, in retirement, as a senior acolyte for hundreds of funeral Masses. He was a graduate of Benjamin Franklin High School, class of 1946, Carbondale, and he attended East Stroudsburg State Teachers College and the University of Scranton. He was a veteran of the United States Army during the Korean War, attaining the rank of corporal and serving as a unit supply specialist with Company B of the 185th Engineers Battalion. White stationed in Korea, he heard Russ Hodges's famous call of the "shot heard round the world" on Oct. 3, 1951 on Armed Forces Radio, when Bobby Thompson hit the game winning home run for the New York Giants during the National League Pennant. Prior to his retirement from Farview State Hospital, Joe was a longtime civil servant employed by Lackawanna County as their chief assessor.

Joe had a great passion for sports, serving as a NCAA baseball and basketball official from 1965 to 1990, and as a PIAA football, basketball and baseball referee/umpire from 1955 to 2005. He was a three sport athlete and basketball captain during high school, and he had the distinction of officiating the first University of Scranton Varsity Basketball game played at the Long Center when it opened in January of 1968. He was a member of the Collegiate Basketball Officials Association and a manager for the Carbondale Little League Dodgers and for the American Legion Post 221 team in the American Legion League. Joe was an instrumental part of the Russell Park Redevelopment in the 1970s, while a member of the Carbondale City Recreation Commission. He was also a former director of the Carbondale Area School Board, helping to oversee the successful jointure of Fell Twp. and Carbondale City schools. Joe enjoyed golfing at Petrilak's Skyline Golf Course and bowling at Valley Lanes. Joe was the dad who would in the summers round up all the neighborhood kids into his Chevy station wagon for 'Buck 'em Out' baseball workouts at Squeekies or Southside Clippers fields, hitting endless fungo bat fly balls and pitching batting practice 'til dusk. He was a loving son, brother, husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who will be greatly missed.

In addition to his wife, also surviving are four children, Dr. Ann McDonald, Swiftwater; Attorney Joseph P. McDonald Jr. and wife, Linda, Stroudsburg; Kevin X. McDonald and wife, Ashby, Annapolis, Md.; Catherine (Cathy-O) McDonald Davenport and husband, Scott, Carlisle; 11 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren, with one on the way; two sisters-in-law, Margaret Moore McDonald and Kay Pope Iyoob; and several nieces and nephews.

He was also preceded in death by three sisters, Marie Louise McDonald Manzo and her husband, Dr. Thomas J.; Margaret Jeanne McDonald and Catherine Marjorie McDonald Duffy; a brother, William "Bill" Francis McDonald; a son-in-law, Myron Korman; and his mother and father-in-law, William and Catherine Ryan Pope; and his brothers and sisters-in-law, William Pope and wife, Jean Murphy Pope; Ann Pope Monahan, Paul Monahan and Joseph Iyoob.

The funeral will be Saturday from the Brennan & Brennan Funeral Home Inc., 55 Lincoln Ave., Carbondale, with a Mass of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. in Our Lady of the Rosary Parish at St. Rose of Lima Church, Carbondale. Interment, Our Mother of Sorrows Cemetery, Finch Hill. Friends may call Friday at the funeral home, from 3 to 6 p.m.

For directions or to send online condolences, visit the funeral home website.