Avadon
29 August 2006, 02:05 PM
This seemed like a fitting place to post this. He sounds like one of those people you wish you could have met.
Former city manager McDonald rose in ranks to lead city
11:25 PM CDT on Monday, August 28, 2006
By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News
Scott McDonald Former Dallas City Manager Scott McDonald was electrocuted Monday while investigating a power line downed by a morning storm at his North Dallas home. He was 98.
He was city manager from July 1966 to December 1972, a critical phase of Dallas' growth.
As a city government employee, Mr. McDonald worked on or coordinated many projects that transformed Dallas, including construction of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the new City Hall, construction of LBJ Freeway, the Dallas County Convention Center, the renovation of the Music Hall at Fair Park and land acquisition for the Trinity River greenbelt. While many of the projects were actually built by other entities, they were all done with the city's close cooperation.
As city manager, Mr. McDonald oversaw the issuance of a $175 million bond package in 1967 and a $172 million package in 1972.
The capital improvements bond packages dwarfed the previous Dallas record of $52.5 million.
Former Dallas City Manager George Schrader said Mr. McDonald was an affable, meticulous engineer.
"He was so likable," said Mr. Schrader, who replaced Mr. McDonald as assistant city manager and city manager. "We had transactions where he was the ambassador to come and talk about a request they had because he was so effective."
A neighbor was a witness to Mr. McDonald's death Monday. Police said the woman had called 911 after hearing a loud boom near the rear of her home.
The neighbor said she tried to warn Mr. McDonald and let him know she had reported the incident.
When Mr. McDonald bent down to touch the sparking wire, he was blown backward, the witness told police.
Mr. McDonald loved taking care of his home, where he had lived since the mid-1950s, said his son-in-law, Robert Murray of Carrollton.
"He was active," Mr. Murray said. "The neighbors finally had told him he had to slow down. He'd get up on the roof and be cleaning out the gutters. Last year they told him, 'Hey, you're too old for that.' "
Mr. McDonald went to work for the city of Dallas as a design engineer in 1942 and retired three decades later as city manager. He stayed much longer than he originally intended.
"My plan was to go to work for the city, spend about two years to get a little experience and then go into the consulting engineering field," he said in 1994. "Thirty years later, I retired as city manager."
"That's when we were building a lot of major thoroughfares," he said.
Although the need for the projects is clear in hindsight, Mr. McDonald recalled opposition to many things now accepted as basic needs.
"I remember when we widened Turtle Creek Boulevard," he said. "It was just a little, narrow street that went through the Turtle Creek area." Over the opposition of garden clubs and related groups, the city designed and built a project that eventually pleased many supporters and opponents, he said.
Born Walter Scott McDonald in Pilot Point, Texas, he moved to Dallas in 1926 to attend Southern Methodist University. He was in SMU's second engineering class, working his way through school on a cooperative program where students worked four weeks then studied four weeks.
He spent the last three years of his studies working for the Cotton Belt Railroad in Jonesboro, Ark., and returned to Dallas for studies.
The Cotton Belt Railroad, however, closed its Jonesboro office when the economy collapsed during the Great Depression, just as he graduated in 1931.
He and a classmate painted street addresses on sidewalks, before Mr. McDonald found and took a job with the Texas Highway Department later in 1931 as a "laborer-straw boss."
Mr. McDonald, however, wasn't suited for the job. During allergy season he often returned home barely able to open his eyes, which had swelled shut from a day in the pollen. He worked for the Highway Department for 11 years before becoming part of Dallas city staff.
Mr. McDonald joined Dallas city government in April 1942 and became assistant director of the Public Works Department in 1946.
Mr. McDonald's home on Desco Drive also tells much about how Dallas changed during his career. He and his late wife, Evelyn Moore McDonald, wanted a larger house than their East Dallas home, but couldn't imagine living north of Northwest Highway in January 1951. (Mrs. McDonald died in 2004 after 70 years of marriage.)
To visit the lot of their future home, the McDonalds had to park on Hillcrest Avenue just north of Northwest Highway, climb under a barbed-wire fence and hike across farmland.
In 1952, he was named assistant city manager. He was named city manager in 1966, replacing Elgin Crull, who resigned.
In retirement, Mr. McDonald traveled the world with his wife and visited Colorado.
He became an off-road enthusiast after receiving a Jeep at his going-away party, said his granddaughter, Kathy Larson of Golden, Colo.
"He was going to Colorado before that, but he ... spent quite a bit of time driving the four-wheel-drive roads up here," Ms. Larson said. "He liked it best when he had three wheels on the road."
Mr. McDonald was a member of Highland Park United Methodist Church.
A memorial is pending for Thursday at Highland Park United Methodist Church, following a private burial at Restland Memorial Park.
Mr. McDonald received numerous honors for his life's work.
He was the Kiwanis Club of Dallas' Citizen of the Year in 1971.
In 1968, he received the International City Management Association's Louis Brownslow Memorial Fund award for his distinguished contributions to the literature of public administration.
SMU named him a distinguished alumnus in 1978, and the university's school of engineering gave him its Hall of Leaders Award this year. He shared that award with his son, W. Scott McDonald Jr. of Grasonville, Md.
In addition to his son, Mr. McDonald is survived by his daughter, Lynn McDonald Murray of Carrollton; eight grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Holly Yan contributed to this report.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082906dnmetmcdonaoldob.3279fd0.html
Former city manager McDonald rose in ranks to lead city
11:25 PM CDT on Monday, August 28, 2006
By JOE SIMNACHER / The Dallas Morning News
Scott McDonald Former Dallas City Manager Scott McDonald was electrocuted Monday while investigating a power line downed by a morning storm at his North Dallas home. He was 98.
He was city manager from July 1966 to December 1972, a critical phase of Dallas' growth.
As a city government employee, Mr. McDonald worked on or coordinated many projects that transformed Dallas, including construction of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the new City Hall, construction of LBJ Freeway, the Dallas County Convention Center, the renovation of the Music Hall at Fair Park and land acquisition for the Trinity River greenbelt. While many of the projects were actually built by other entities, they were all done with the city's close cooperation.
As city manager, Mr. McDonald oversaw the issuance of a $175 million bond package in 1967 and a $172 million package in 1972.
The capital improvements bond packages dwarfed the previous Dallas record of $52.5 million.
Former Dallas City Manager George Schrader said Mr. McDonald was an affable, meticulous engineer.
"He was so likable," said Mr. Schrader, who replaced Mr. McDonald as assistant city manager and city manager. "We had transactions where he was the ambassador to come and talk about a request they had because he was so effective."
A neighbor was a witness to Mr. McDonald's death Monday. Police said the woman had called 911 after hearing a loud boom near the rear of her home.
The neighbor said she tried to warn Mr. McDonald and let him know she had reported the incident.
When Mr. McDonald bent down to touch the sparking wire, he was blown backward, the witness told police.
Mr. McDonald loved taking care of his home, where he had lived since the mid-1950s, said his son-in-law, Robert Murray of Carrollton.
"He was active," Mr. Murray said. "The neighbors finally had told him he had to slow down. He'd get up on the roof and be cleaning out the gutters. Last year they told him, 'Hey, you're too old for that.' "
Mr. McDonald went to work for the city of Dallas as a design engineer in 1942 and retired three decades later as city manager. He stayed much longer than he originally intended.
"My plan was to go to work for the city, spend about two years to get a little experience and then go into the consulting engineering field," he said in 1994. "Thirty years later, I retired as city manager."
"That's when we were building a lot of major thoroughfares," he said.
Although the need for the projects is clear in hindsight, Mr. McDonald recalled opposition to many things now accepted as basic needs.
"I remember when we widened Turtle Creek Boulevard," he said. "It was just a little, narrow street that went through the Turtle Creek area." Over the opposition of garden clubs and related groups, the city designed and built a project that eventually pleased many supporters and opponents, he said.
Born Walter Scott McDonald in Pilot Point, Texas, he moved to Dallas in 1926 to attend Southern Methodist University. He was in SMU's second engineering class, working his way through school on a cooperative program where students worked four weeks then studied four weeks.
He spent the last three years of his studies working for the Cotton Belt Railroad in Jonesboro, Ark., and returned to Dallas for studies.
The Cotton Belt Railroad, however, closed its Jonesboro office when the economy collapsed during the Great Depression, just as he graduated in 1931.
He and a classmate painted street addresses on sidewalks, before Mr. McDonald found and took a job with the Texas Highway Department later in 1931 as a "laborer-straw boss."
Mr. McDonald, however, wasn't suited for the job. During allergy season he often returned home barely able to open his eyes, which had swelled shut from a day in the pollen. He worked for the Highway Department for 11 years before becoming part of Dallas city staff.
Mr. McDonald joined Dallas city government in April 1942 and became assistant director of the Public Works Department in 1946.
Mr. McDonald's home on Desco Drive also tells much about how Dallas changed during his career. He and his late wife, Evelyn Moore McDonald, wanted a larger house than their East Dallas home, but couldn't imagine living north of Northwest Highway in January 1951. (Mrs. McDonald died in 2004 after 70 years of marriage.)
To visit the lot of their future home, the McDonalds had to park on Hillcrest Avenue just north of Northwest Highway, climb under a barbed-wire fence and hike across farmland.
In 1952, he was named assistant city manager. He was named city manager in 1966, replacing Elgin Crull, who resigned.
In retirement, Mr. McDonald traveled the world with his wife and visited Colorado.
He became an off-road enthusiast after receiving a Jeep at his going-away party, said his granddaughter, Kathy Larson of Golden, Colo.
"He was going to Colorado before that, but he ... spent quite a bit of time driving the four-wheel-drive roads up here," Ms. Larson said. "He liked it best when he had three wheels on the road."
Mr. McDonald was a member of Highland Park United Methodist Church.
A memorial is pending for Thursday at Highland Park United Methodist Church, following a private burial at Restland Memorial Park.
Mr. McDonald received numerous honors for his life's work.
He was the Kiwanis Club of Dallas' Citizen of the Year in 1971.
In 1968, he received the International City Management Association's Louis Brownslow Memorial Fund award for his distinguished contributions to the literature of public administration.
SMU named him a distinguished alumnus in 1978, and the university's school of engineering gave him its Hall of Leaders Award this year. He shared that award with his son, W. Scott McDonald Jr. of Grasonville, Md.
In addition to his son, Mr. McDonald is survived by his daughter, Lynn McDonald Murray of Carrollton; eight grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Holly Yan contributed to this report.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/082906dnmetmcdonaoldob.3279fd0.html