Living quietly in a peaceful spot in Campobello suits Don McDonald well, but the five-time national water-ski champion, former downhill-skier and power-boat drag racer can’t keep still, and continually discovers ways to help his community.
McDonald, who lost his parents in an automobile crash when he was just six, found mentors while in a foster home, and also found something inside himself to help him succeed in several fields, spending much of his time based in California, with a stint in New Jersey, and consulting work throughout much of the U.S.
Maybe ironically, and maybe not, he became a ward of the County of Los Angeles. He later served the county for 27 years, as among other responsibilities, a legislative analyst for the Department of Community Development, project director of the Young Adult Conservation Grant, and training director for the Los Angeles County Public Library Dept. (where he was involved in helping the library facilities become the world’s largest automated circulation system). He retired from the county in 2001.
Before his tenure with the county, McDonald, who from 1964-67, worked with then-California Governor Pat Brown as a field representative in the L.A. area, witnessed the infamous Watts Riots of 1965, in Los Angeles.
“I was on the ground,” he said, when the riots began. Immediately, he met with officials to help prevent more rioting. Under his direction, the state created twelve career centers, which provided employment services, and other needed social services, for underserved residents.
McDonald remembers when residents began using those centers.
“That was a definitive moment in my life,” he said.
After his stint with Gov. Brown, McDonald received an offer for similar work with the state of New Jersey. While there, he attended the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Administration, in Princeton. There, he received his master’s degree. Not long after that, he was recruited back to Southern California, where he became a consultant for the Criminal Justice Planning Board of Los Angeles County.
In the early 1970s, McDonald began power-boat drag racing. He also took up downhill skiing. Bicycle riding helped keep him in shape for skiing. In 1983, he began water-ski racing.
McDonald gained his recreational fame in the world-famous Catalina Ski Race, a 62-mile water-ski event in ocean water off the California coast. This is not your typical lake water skiing. It’s a grueling test of skill and endurance in rough water at high speeds- over 60 mph.
“This is the granddaddy of international ski racing,” McDonald says of the CSR, which has a rich 65-year history.
Competitors use one ski, with one foot behind the other. How rough can the water be? It’s the ocean; rough water comes with the territory. At the race’s turnaround point, “you’re coming back through water that all the other (up to 100) boats just tore up,” emphasized McDonald. “It’s like a gold rush,” McDonald notes of the fury of scores of boats. In some spots, he said, “I’ve gone over bumps where my knee has hit my chest.”
For 12 years, his boats, capable of speeds of 90 mph, wore the name Mac Attack. Naturally, the ambitious McDonald got McDonald’s (of the Golden Arches) as a sponsor, to help cover some of the costs of competition. Racers compete for the honor; the CSR has no prize money.
From 1995 through 2000, McDonald was the national champion five times.
Since 2003, McDonald has lived in his present home, in horse country in Campobello, S.C. How did he get from southern California to South Carolina’s upcountry?
A successful clothing designer named Pat Young, originally from Gowensville, was living in Los Angeles when she and McDonald met and married. After retirement, they settled here.
The outgoing McDonald had already met many local residents, and likes being involved in the community.
When America’s Country Store closed, owner Tom Simpson suggested that McDonald continue servicing many of their customers. As a result, McDonald’s Farm Delivery Services was born, and is still going strong. McDonald can be reached at 864-921-1550, any time.
With a beautiful and creative wife, comfortable home, plus a friendly German shorthair pointer and three cats, McDonald is at peace.