Ronald MacDonald

On Saturday, March 3, Ron E. MacDonald passed away due to pulmonary fibrosis. He was the north, south, east and west for all of us. He is survived by his loving wife of 59 years, Jean Evangeline MacDonald, our family of seven daughters Karen, Elaine, Theresa, Clare, Laura, Carmen, and Rebecca and their husbands and partners; thirteen grandchildren; three great grandchildren; his sister Marian (Garside), whom he teased and loved dearly, and her husband Don, and their children Jay, Barry, Lynette, Kimberley and Gayle in Ontario, Canada.

He was a scientist, poet and humanitarian, who at his core was a kind, loving and modest soul. As a physicist, the world at large held great magic and possibilities. He hailed from Goderich, Ontario, Canada and came from a family of "blue water" lake sea captains. His father, Walter James, was the captain of the Rose Castle.

He garnered a PhD. in Physics from the University of Toronto and taught Physics at Essex University. He worked at the Naval Defense Research Board in Canada, as well as a scientist at Bell Labs. He was invited to California in 1961 and worked at IBM for 35 years in research and development as a scientist, technical leader and mentor, and led many key technical litigation projects.

At IBM over the years, he heralded many of the early information technology firsts in the magnetic recording industry. The first "thin film head", the first "magnetic resistive tape head" are a few. His friends and colleagues would comment on his great sense of humor, his imaginative wit and how he could make the most dismal projects and work exciting. The people who worked for him and with him really liked him. Ron really cared about and knew the people, with whom he worked with, on a very human personal level. He knew them as people first and foremost. Ron would honor his colleagues by writing poems for them as they left IBM for new horizons, reading Robert Service poems to the crew over coffee breaks to engage their hearts and their heads. He retired from IBM in 1998 and continued to have weekly coffee breaks with the crew.

We love and will miss him terribly.

Life is a gift, accept it; life is a challenge, meet it; life is eternal, believe it. He did.

A Celebration of Life Mass will be held on Friday, March 9, 2012 at 10am at St. Catherine Catholic Church in Morgan Hill, CA.