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Childhood The family
took a boat back to America around 1923. Robert's father, Charles, still in the Army, was
stationed at various places. There are good memories of the Benicia Arsenal in California,
for example. Robert graduated from St. Augustine High School in San Diego in 1938. He
joined the National Guard soon after that; his unit was activated as World War II neared. Military My dad's military activation took him to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Yes, he was there on December 7, 1941, watching the surprise Japanese attack on our naval base. He was shipped to the Fiji Islands, promoted to Sergeant, volunteered for flight school and was accepted. From 1944 through the end of the war, he flew the P-51 Mustang on reconnaissance and strafing missions in Europe. He lost four planes, but made it through. His exploits earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and a bunch of other medals. He's also featured in Jay Stout's "Unsung Eagles," a book highlighting the missions and travails of selected World War II pilots. Marriage and kids He married my mom, Maureen Ryan, in 1950 in the San Diego Mission. While she was pregnant with me, he was called up again for military duty, this time to Korea. Captain Macdonald was riding his jeep in the scorching valleys of Korea when a messenger delivered him a message: his son was born. He didn't see me until I was a year old. He and my mom had two more kids, my sisters Julie and Anne. He married my mom, Maureen Ryan, in 1950 in the San Diego Mission. While she was pregnant with me, he was called up again for military duty, this time to Korea. Captain Macdonald was riding his jeep in the scorching valleys of Korea when a messenger delivered him a message: his son was born. He didn't see me until I was a year old. He and my mom had two more kids, my sisters Julie and Anne. Career Once back in the States after the war, he finished up college at San Diego State, majoring in Art. On a lark, he took the civil service test for the Probation Department, passed, and began his lifelong career there. By the time he retired in 1975, he had risen through the ranks and was Chief of the San Diego County Probation Department, head of the second-largest government organization (after the Police Department) in the county. Talents and hobbies Robert is, to this day, an artist. While he concentrates on oil painting, he's also sculpted, cast jewelry, painted with acrylics, and experimented with many more media. He's a longtime music buff who plays piano and organ. I remember to this day how he would sit in front of his hi-fi, listening with glee, when the newfangled stereo broadcast was first invented in the late 1950s. The rest After he retired, he bought a boat and a new car and relaxed -- for a little while. In 1987, he bought a Macintosh Plus computer and PageMaker and began to learn computing. Nowadays he has a Dell Pentium II 300 MHz machine and a spectacular array of software. He's writing, editing, and publishing three monthly newsletters and loving the new technology. The man is now grandfather to four, and the grandkids can't get enough of him.
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The beginnings in Germany
Robert H. Macdonald was born in 1921 in 
