Grace and Ronald welcomed their first son Gordon who was born on the 3rd of May, 1904 in Grand Rapids, Itasca Co., Minnesota. He followed Vivian.
Baby Gordon 1904
I always knew him as Uncle Gordy! Miriam, his sister, wrote about her brother…
“Gordon was bright. Good in math and learned his Geometry…Gordon had the same genius mechanical ability as other McDonalds and so did Keith. We have pictures of him campaigning for his father….”
As I remember him, Gordon was a quiet man but very intense. He would visit his younger brother Keith in the years to follow and they would talk for hours in the basement of our house while my dad worked on his engines or fixed the car.
Gordon & The Public School
I love this photo of my Uncle! The frown and the suspenders holding up his pants! The location is International Falls and the building behind might be a school or the courthouse. The Alexander Baker school was not built-in 1913 and this building is much earlier.
I can just see Gordy running freely about International Falls. I wish I had thought to ask him questions about the family but I was too young and shy. I will talk about what I do know of my Uncle Gordy in future posts. I have a few very interesting stories about him, unfortunately not enough.
The photos of Gordon campaigning for Ronald, his father, have gone missing. I am assuming the campaigning was for Ronald’s position as commissioner? I suppose I could try the newspaper to see if I could find anything in International Falls but that would be slogging work! It is a thought?
BJ MacDonald
The Man Who Lived Airplanes 