Phyllis Golinko McDonald

Phyllis was born in New York City on February 3, 1943 to Minna and Joseph Golinko. She grew up in West Orange, New Jersey where she attended West Orange High School. Upon graduation she attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio, where during her first week she met Jim McDonald, her husband of 57 years.

She and Jim began their marriage in New York City in 1968 but moved to San Francisco in 1970 when Jim was transferred with his firm Price Waterhouse. There, Phyllis and Jim relished their many adventures, racing sailboats on the San Francisco Bay, tasting “California Cuisine” and making lifelong friends. Phyllis even performed in a few local theater productions. She considered life in the Bay Area wonderful.

For several years, Phyllis worked first in advertising and then as a medical copy editor at San Francisco General Hospital. But when daughter Sarah was born in 1977, Phyllis became a full-time mom, a role that brought her great joy, purpose and community involvement, especially with the Marin Horizon School which Sarah attended for 9 years.

Phyllis had a special talent for trivia and remembering “arcane facts”. She won every game of Trivial Pursuit she ever played, and she competed twice on the game show Jeopardy!, once in 1973 in New York and again in 1986 in Los Angeles, when she won on two consecutive days.

In 1988 Phyllis, Jim and Sarah were transferred back to New York by Price Waterhouse. They settled in Greenwich, CT and Phyllis jumped right in to their new community, easing Sarah’s transition to a new school, meeting more lifelong friends and becoming an active member and volunteer with the Greenwich High School PTA and the Greenwich Reform Synagogue, where she served on the Board and produced the newsletter for many years. Later, when Sarah was off to college, she took on full time responsibilities at Jewish Family Services of Greenwich where she led the longest-running program at JFS - Supermarketing for Seniors.

Phyllis and Jim enjoyed many years traveling the world and enjoying the theater, the opera and other riches of New York City. Phyllis was a voracious reader her whole life, she loved to dance, and she never met a new pair of shoes or handbag that she didn’t want to bring home. Above all, Phyllis loved becoming a grandmother. Even as Parkinson’s Disease began to limit her physical abilities, she delighted in sitting on the couch and reading to her grandchildren when they were younger and having them tell her about their active lives.

In addition to Jim and Sarah, Phyllis is survived by her grandchildren Conor, Molly and Cormac Egan of Pelham, NY; her sister Margo Golinko of Dixon, CA; her sister-in-law Eileen Martin of Newton, MA; her cousin Erica Baird of New York City; and a long list of much-loved in-laws, nephews and nieces. She was predeceased by her son-in-law, Patrick Egan and her brother, Fred Golinko.

Phyllis treasured her many friends, including from Marin County and the New York area, and her wonderful aides, who took care of her for many years. In lieu of flowers, please direct any contributions to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research or Jewish Family Services of Greenwich.