Duncan Black McDonald

 

With the passing of Duncan McDonald Cook County has lost the University of Michigan quarterback who inspired a generation of college football players, an insurance executive who was prominent in bringing the industry into the 21st century, a boyfriend and husband of 75 years to wife Evelyn, father to his wonderful daughter Deborah, an engaged kind and understanding grandfather and great-grandfather, and good friend to many.

Born to Anne Crawford McDonald and Duncan McDonald, Sr. in Flint on July 1, 1933, Dunc’s father was a manager at the GM Factory, but when Dunc was in high school Duncan, Sr. was transferred to Baltimore. As the winning quarterback of the Flint Northern High School team, and with his girlfriend Evelyn Brahce in Flint, rather than relocating, Dunc stayed in Flint.

Evie began attending Flint Community College while Dunc was a senior. Leading the Flint Northern team to the State of Michigan High School Football Championship, Dunc won the game by throwing a touchdown pass in the last two seconds. Much sought out as a quarterback by all the major football powers, Dunc initially attended West Point.

After a summer in the military, Dunc decided it was not for him, flew back to Michigan, and made his way to Ann Arbor, where he was eagerly awaited and immediately became the starting quarterback, a position he held for four years, the only quarterback in U of M history to start for four years. His beloved Evie had transferred from community college to the U of M and joined him. Following his junior year, they married.

A world-class athlete, Duncan was also an astute intellectual and excellent student, majoring in economics and business. On completion of his senior year, Dunc was recruited by the Detroit Lions, but soon due to an injury, retired from professional football. Ev and Dunc relocated to Saganaw, and a year later, their daughter Deborah Anne McDonald was born. The family moved to Edina by the time Deb entered first grade. Ev taught in the Edina Public Schools, where she pioneered one of the country’s first Gifted and Talented Education programs.

Duncan entered the insurance industry, rising from personal production to the leadership of several national insurance firms. The industry grew with Dunc, and he assisted in preparing it for a transition into the 21st Century. Dunc worked for the Aetna, Lincoln National and Western States, retiring as Senior Vice President for the Western.

When Dunc retired at 55, he had been offered the position of Senior Vice President of IDS American Express Financial Services, but instead Ev and Dunc decided they would retire and move to their beloved Cook County, where they had a cabin on Gunflint Lake since 1969. A weekly summer destination, during the winter the McDonalds often visited to ski, hunt and fish.

Dunc was the second of four children. His older brother Andy, who too had played brilliantly at Flint Northern, had gone on to become the defensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks, was only a few years older than Dunc, but died in the early 1980’s at age 54. Dunc thereafter was the “older brother” of Ian and Mary. Both Andy and Ian predeceased Dunc, as did Dunc’s close friends Dick Joynes, Park Johnson, DeWitt Swanson, Chuck Tice, Alton Berglund, Frank Gillis and Bud Sivertson, many of whom were members of the Blue Water Boys coffee group that met every morning.

When Dunc and Ev reached Grand Marais, they bought a unit in the Grand Marais Condominiums. Deb, her husband Dr. Edward Hyman, and her two boys, Cameron and Devon, would spend their summers in Grand Marais and at the Gunflint cabin. But neither Dunc nor Evelyn really thought of retirement as relaxation, and they would frequently take trips up the Gunflint in the thick of winter to view the wildlife, do cross country skiing, other pursuits like ice fishing and hunting, or to visit friends, especially their friend of several decades the Hestons.

Within a few months of their relocation, not only did they have Gunflint friends they had known for decades, but in town dozens of couples they became close to through the “Gillis Group,” an aggregation of seniors who flocked to jazz pianist and retired musicology professor Frank Gillis. The McDonalds lived in the condo for three decades, and it was there that Dunc passed away on March 1, 2023, four months to the day prior to his 90th birthday.

A great deal can be said about Dunc, but little can be said to capture his intellect, wit and sense of humor. When Duncan was stern, you would not be comfortable, but when that smile came out, the whole world lit up. Dunc and Ev lit up the town. On Ev’s 60th birthday, a few years after they had permanently relocated to Grand Marais, there were so many local friends there that the crowd not only filled up the entire unit, but a good part of the hall outside.

Duncan was always understanding and supportive of his grandsons, assisting them in soccer, football and baseball. The boys went on to captain their high school teams, and in college, one went on to play baseball and to lead Carleton College to the NCAA playoffs for the first time in over a century and a half. But like Duncan, the boys turned from sports to other careers, Cameron to medicine, and Devon to art and cinema. When Devon, an accomplished artist and documentarian whose work was included in the City of Los Angeles time capsule to be opened in a century, won the Handtmann Prize, Dunc and Ev were there in LA not only to celebrate, but to help set up the exhibit hall for the opening of Devon’s remarkable documentary and related pieces of art. They were also there when Cameron received his medical school white coat, when he defended his PhD dissertation, and when he received his MD.

Other than family, Duncan’s other great loves were University of Michigan football, sports and the outdoors. An ardent outdoorsman, Dunc eagerly engaged his grandsons, both of whom became skilled fishermen.

With the passing of Duncan, we have lost a loving husband, father, father-in-law, brother, brother in-law grandfather, and a wonderful great-grandfather. However, for the last 2 years Dunc was besieged with a cruel and unforgiving disease, and while it is so hard to lose him, Dunc is now in a better place. Each of us touched by the life of Duncan Black McDonald will realize that we are all richer for Dunc having been in our life, and that gift will never be taken from us. Good Bye, Dunc, we will always love and miss you. May all your ways be paths of peace.

A Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday July 22 at 1:00 pm at the family’s house on the Lake Superior shore at 218 East 2nd Street, Grand Marais (lakeside of the Aspen Lodge). Rain or shine (under a tent top). All in the community are welcome.