Dwite Mac M. McCloud

Dwite Merrill (Mac) McCloud entered into the presence of his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on June 30,2013. He is survived by his beloved wife of 67 years, Nancy Gage McCloud and their three adult children, Anne Woodyard, Ross McCloud, and Lorna Stiefvater, as well as their grandsons, Josh Woodyard and Jonathan McCloud, granddaughters, Sunshine (Woodyard) Baker and Dawn McCloud; great-grandsons, Connor Davis and Walter Woodyard and their great -granddaughters, Cassidy Davis and Ivy Woodyard.

Mac was born to Loren and Harriet McCloud in Royal Center, Indiana on April 18, 1924. He was a happy, curious boy who loved to sing, play instruments, explore the countryside with his friends, and help on the family farm. When he grew older the family moved to West Lafayette, Indiana, where he played in the school band, studied hard and did very well in his classes. He was accepted into the Engineering department at Purdue University, and had been in college for a year and a half when he answered the call to serve his country in WWII. Mac served in the United States Army Air Corps as a First Lieutenant on active duty from 5/23/1944 to 2/3/1946, flying Douglas DC3s and C47s in the European Theater (556th AAF BU LB AAF).

At 20 years of age Mac was on leave (waiting to be transferred overseas) in the Lake Tahoe, California area, when he met his bride to be Nancy Gage at a resort. He fell head over heels for her and had no idea she was only 16 years old! He continued their long distance courtship by letter while he was in Europe and when he returned to the United States 2 years later he proposed to her. They married on 6/30/1946 in San Francisco. Following a honeymoon road trip through national parks as they returned to West Lafayette, Mac finished college, earning his Bachelor's degree in Metallurgical Engineering. After graduating from Purdue, Mac and Nan returned to California so that Mac could start a job working at Standard Oil. He worked for Standard Oil for several years and then he and a friend founded Magna Corp, a company that specialized in metallurgy and long-life batteries.

As a young boy, Mac had accepted Jesus Christ's payment on the cross for his sins, realizing that even he had done wrong in his young life, and needed a Savior. Now, after years of success, with a fulfilling life in business, and a growing family, Mac and Nan both felt that there was something missing in their lives. They also felt that the United States was becoming more liberal and dismissive of God, and that they personally needed to somehow get closer to Him. A repressed memory slowly came back to Mac; when he was flying near the end of WWII, somehow, one of his two engines caught on fire. Mac prayed the serviceman’s prayer:” Lord, get me out of this one and I’ll serve you for the rest of my life”, and God answered his prayer--the plane landed safely. As Mac said many times later in life: “I forgot about the promise I made to God but He did not!” Mac re-dedicated his life to Christ, Nan and the children accepted Jesus Christ as their Messiah and Savior, and soon, Mac and Nan were attending Bible studies and counseling at Billy Graham Crusades in California. Mac started taping sermons from their home church, the Fullerton Evangelical Free church, to send to foreign missionaries, and eventually, he and Nan felt the Lord calling them to also serve Him full-time on the mission field.

The normal process for foreign missionaries was to raise support, pack everything they owned, and move to language school. However, Mac and Nan were well into that process for several months when a telephone call arrived from HCJB’s home office in Florida, saying that an emergency had arisen on the field and they needed to get there immediately. Mac arranged to have their things shipped and the family flew directly to Quito, Ecuador. Mac served in the Accounting office of the mission in Quito, and before he and Nan had taken many Spanish lessons, they opened their home to host a Spanish language Bible study led by a veteran missionary. They also shared God’s word on English-language short-wave radio programs for HCJB, and opened their home often to visitors to HCJB. Mac sang in the HCJB choir and also played the baritone horn and the tuba in the mission band.

When the business department moved to the United States, the family left Ecuador and returned to South Florida where Mac served as Vice President of Administration. During his time in South Florida Mac led the mission from paper to computers, installing several hardware and software updates over the years (assisted at one point by Lorna). When the mission headquarters moved to Colorado Springs, Mac and Nan happily “adopted” Colorado as their new home and moved there. Mac continued his work in the business department and “officially” retired on 8/1/1999 with almost 36 years of service. Mac continued to volunteer and serve on finance meetings until his health began to decline in the early 2000s.

Mac’s interests outside of work consisted of loving music of ALL kinds (he taught all his children to sing), ham radio (early on), computers of all kinds, water sports (boating, fishing, swimming, skin and scuba diving, sailing) jogging, bicycling , etc.. He passed his love for all these things on to his children, too!

Mac's health was generally very good over the years until he had a sudden and severe heart attack. For the next 8 years, his heart weakened further as he dealt with severe arthritis, broken bones and weakness, which caused his body to decline rapidly. He was hospitalized on and off from December 2, 2012 until June of 2013, when he finally asked to come home under hospice care and was granted permission to move back to their apartment so he could be with his beloved Nancy when the end came. In the early hours of the morning of June 30, 2013, their 67th wedding anniversary, as Nan sat at his bedside and held his hand, he opened his eyes and attempted to speak to his sweetheart once more, and then, shortly after, stepped into the presence of God, where he was welcomed home forever to his eternal home in Heaven.

We will always miss him while we are still here on earth, and look forward to joining him someday in heaven where we can praise our Savior together for a joyful eternity.