Detail

Former Teacher Lachlan MacDonald Passes

May 11, 2012

Lachlan MacDonald passed away peacefully at his home in Arroyo Grande on Friday, May 4, 2012. He taught English at Webb in the late 1950s through the early 1960s, and was recently on campus for the Class of 1961’s 50th reunion. For this celebration, Dave Fawcett ‘61, described Lachlan as "tough - the kind of teacher that demanded his students learn…they, in turn, held him in the highest regard.”

Mr. MacDonald served as an assistant track coach and taught such subjects as English I & II, Modern History and Driver’s Education. Among his many contributions to our community, he founded the literary magazine known still as Sage.

Mr. MacDonald’s career also included prospecting for gold in Central America, working as a reporter and serving with the US Army in Alaska. He edited for the nationally prominent literary magazine, The Chicago Review, as well as the West Coast literary magazine, Coastlines. Mr. MacDonald worked at Cal Poly as a Director of Public Affairs until his retirement in 1979. After which, he and his wife founded and ran Padre Productions, a publishing company specializing in Central Coast guidebooks.

In his spare time, Mr. MacDonald was active in two local Episcopal churches, St. Barnabas in Arroyo Grande and St. Peters in Santa Maria. He also enjoyed serving as a volunteer for the Arroyo Grande Public Library and Five Cities Christian Women Food Bank, as well as painting. His work was recently on display in the San Luis Obispo Art Center, among other venues.

Mr. MacDonald is survived by wife, Karen, three sons from prior marriages, Lawrence, Gordon and Craig, and several grandchildren. A fourth son, Roderick MacDonald, of Walden, NY, predeceased him in 2010.

For more about the life of Lachlan MacDonald, visit this website. http://lachlanmacdonald.org/

Comments

  • Bill Ripley

    5/11/2012 2:53:39 PM

    I remember Mr. MacDonald as a tough English teacher. He held the bar very high. He, like his colleague, Larry Mc Millin made us write and re-write essays until we got it right. That is why so many of us can write with ease today. He was also my track coach and, like the classroom, held us to levels of excellence we never thought we could attain. I owe him a lot!

  • Bruce Parks

    5/11/2012 3:02:57 PM

    I am so sorry to hear of Lachlan MacDonald's passing. I took English from him in my freshman, sophomore, and senior years at Webb in the early 60s plus Driver's Ed and Comparative Religion. As Dave Fawcett described, he was "tough." However, he was by far the best English teacher I have ever had; better than any in college. At our 40th class reunion in 2003 I spoke to him about how hard he had been and he just smiled and said "I tried to challenge you to do the best that you could do, better than you thought you could do." I was hoping to talk to him again next year at our 50th reunion.

  • Dwight Morgan '65

    5/11/2012 3:31:39 PM

    Never took a class from Mac Donald but remember him as "Black Jack" omn the CB when on Peccary Trips.

    RIP.

  • Kurt J Dietel '59

    5/11/2012 3:53:46 PM

    I thought I had a Spanish class one year with Mr. MacDonald. Maybe it was just that my English was that bad.
    I am sorry I didn't realize he lived in the Central Coast not too far from our ranch land in Los Olivos. It would have been great to enjoy some time with Lachlan. Although I remember him as a tough professor, I can look back and perceive it would have been fascinating to spend time with him when I finally became an adult. May God comfort his family.

  • Chuck Bell, 63

    5/12/2012 1:10:06 PM

    Dave Fawcett said it well. Mr MacDonald taught us the fundamental principles of analysis - sentence structure - getting to the point with the most descriptive wording. We are thankful that we were able to tell him that at one of our class renunions.

  • michael s. moore

    5/12/2012 7:24:02 PM

    Lachlan MacDonald changed my life, or affirmed and encouraged what it turned out to be.

    I think my first class at Webb was Mr. MacDonald's first period sophomore English class. It may well have been his first class, too; fall of 1957 as a few weeks later we were all uneasily puzzling over Sputnik in the same location. One explicit thing I remember about that year was his continually challenging us in our writing, our ideas as well as, game-like, to come up with words he didn't know...I forget the conditions, whether we were allowed to research or just think something up in class, but I stumped him with "vibrissa" and I, a cat fancier at the time, never forgot it.
    This is not exactly why he was one of, if not the, most influential people in that formative time for me, but things he did, or the way he was then, set what became my course in life. As a [failed] juvenile delinquent and aspiring beatnik myself [though beatniks may not quite have been invented yet] his connections to the actual art and literary scenes in the southland as well as his experiences and example were transformative. He brought the creative life into ours with the pursuit of his own writing, and more immediately, through founding Sage, the literary magazine, in which I was an early and enthusiastic participant, learning valuable if now long-obsolete skills which allowed me to do similar work in college and beyond, working with alternative publications into the seventies, anyway. More than that he embodied an artist, writer in his case, persevering in his work, and that proved most valuable of all for me. For better or worse, I have, and with incredible luck, gotten away with a life in painting for the half century [more!] since.

    A few years ago I went searching for him on the internet; I now see I was close, but didn't go far enough; I wish I'd been in touch here at the other end of life, but I can see that he went on to a long and productive one; I'll never forget his positive influence. I know I'm not alone in this.

    My deepest condolences to his family and all who knew him.

    Michael S. Moore
    '60

  • Chip Greening '62 with former teacher Lachlan MacDonald
    Chip Greening '62 with former teacher Lachlan MacDonald
  • Lachlan MacDonald (on right), El Espejo 1958
    Lachlan MacDonald (on right), El Espejo 1958
  • English teacher Lach MacDonald (El Espejo 1962)
    English teacher Lach MacDonald (El Espejo 1962)
  • Lachlan MacDonald and his wife Karen at Alumni Weekend 2011
    Lachlan MacDonald and his wife Karen at Alumni Weekend 2011
  • Former faculty Lachlan MacDonald & Dick Walker with their wives at Alumni Weekend 2011
    Former faculty Lachlan MacDonald & Dick Walker with their wives at Alumni Weekend 2011
  • Steve Farley '81 and Lachlan MacDonald at Alumni Weekend 2011
    Steve Farley '81 and Lachlan MacDonald at Alumni Weekend 2011
  • Mr. MacDonald, a former Webb teacher, was back on campus during Alumni Weekend. He had lunch in the dining hall with Ian '13, and Chip Greening '62.

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