Forrest Fraser MacDonald
Engineer, WWII Veteran
January 26, 1915 - November 14, 2013
Forrest Fraser MacDonald died November 14, 2013, after a brief illness. He was 98.
Forrest was born in Glace Bay, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, to Edward MacDonald and Bessie Graham MacDonald. His maternal grandparents and paternal great-grandparents had immigrated to Nova Scotia from the South Uist and Kintail areas of Scotland.
The family moved to Boston in 1925. Forrest graduated from Northeastern University in 1936 with a B.S. in Civil Engineering. He worked for Stone and Webster as a structural steel designer, then for United Fruit Company as a structural designer. In 1938 he was sent to Parrita, Costa Rica, by United Fruit Co. for two years to build banana farms, schools, and housing. Forrest also helped design a United Fruit Co. pier in Havana, Cuba. He was drafted into the US Army in February 1941, and sent to Officer Candidate School, Corps of Engineers, Ft. Belvoir, VA. He was stationed at various army facilities including Ft. Knox, Pine Camp, NY, and Ft. Ord and Ft. San Luis Obispo in California.
Forrest met Helen Christina Anderson of Boston in 1937 on a blind date just three weeks before she left for Tokyo, Japan, for two years as a teacher. They maintained a correspondence despite being apart for more than three years. They were reunited in Boston, and were married on September 5, 1942, three days after Forrest was commissioned a 2nd Lt. Forrest was sent to Okinawa with the 1344th Combat Engineers Battalion in 1945, returning in early 1946. He was discharged from the army in 1946 with the rank of Captain.
The MacDonalds lived in North Abington, MA, and Forrest rejoined United Fruit Co. He saw an ad in the Boston Globe recruiting engineers for the burgeoning aerospace industry in Southern California. He headed west in 1952 with the family in tow (Helen; Karen, 8; Lauren, 6; and Cameron, 2). Daughter Karen remembers that in California all the family vacations involved water. Helen needed a place to swim, and Forrest needed a place to fish and/or sail.
They settled in El Segundo and Forrest began his career at North American Aviation (later Rockwell International, now part of Boeing) as a Senior Designer in the Engineering department with work on Air Force aircraft. He retired in 1975 as Project Engineer and Program Manager, having worked on the X-15 project among others. (Forrest recently participated in the oral history portion of The Aerospace History Project, a collaboration between USC and the Huntington Library. They are collecting the papers and oral histories of individuals and institutions to create a central resource of photos, documents, and recollections of that significant era of Southern California history.)
After retirement Forrest and Helen renewed their great interest in travel. They traveled to Scotland and Sweden several times, Southeast Asia, Japan, and the USSR.
Forrest and Helen moved to Claremont, CA, in 2000, and Forrest moved into The Claremont Manor two years after Helen's death in 2008. They were members of Claremont United Methodist Church.
Forrest and Helen started attending Scottish Highland Games in the 1970's, and became very involved in all things Scottish, eventually becoming members of Clan Donald, Clan Donnachaidh, Clan Graham, Clan Fraser, United Scottish Society, and the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. Dancing, and especially Scottish country dancing was a very large part of Forrest and Helen's life together. Their daughter Lauren says that one of the things that impressed Helen when she first met Forrest was that he was a “great dancer.” Forrest was also involved in the Clan Donald Trust and a life member of the St. Andrew's Society. He was a director of the Clan Donald Foundation, and elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland (FSA Scot). These connections prompted a great interest in genealogy, which Forrest pursued with a passion, finding family links all the way back to 900 in Scotland.
Forrest was the consummate woodworker, forever in his workshop fashioning wine racks, coatracks and napkin holders, among other functional pieces. He loved solving design problems with his innovative solutions (a la Rube Goldberg). He even drew an intricate and thoroughly enchanting design of a better mousetrap. Forrest lost two fingers in a power saw accident in the 1950s during one of his projects, and an imprint of said hand is immortalized in the John Fisher Sculpture at Shelton Park in Claremont. He also enjoyed gardening, and produced bumper crops of corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers every summer for more than 60 years.
Forrest is survived by daughters Karen Rosenthal of Claremont, CA (husband Michael); Lauren Cassatt of Snowmass Village, CO; grandchildren Alix Rosenthal and Ariel Rosenthal Parrish (husband David) of San Francisco; Alexander Cassatt of Seattle; Hayley Cassatt of Portland, OR; great-grandson Elliott Parrish; foster son Wolde Meskel Mahetem (wife Yeshi) and family of Fresno, and three nieces and a nephew.
Forrest was predeceased by his wife Helen, son Cameron in 1995, and son-in-law Chris Cassatt in 2013.
A memorial celebration will be held at Claremont United Methodist Church at 2 pm on Sunday, January 26, 2014, Forrest's 99th birthday.
Donations in Forrest's memory may be made to The Clan Donald Foundation PO Box 13138, Charleston, SC, 29412, or Claremont United Methodist Church, 211 W. Foothill Blvd., Claremont, CA, 91711.
