Donald Gordon MacDonald *48

Donald Gordon MacDonald died at his home in Washington, D.C., from esophageal cancer Jan. 12, 2004. He was 82.

MacDonald was born in Chicago and graduated from Wesleyan U. before serving in the Navy during WWII. He earned a master's degree in politics from Princeton in 1948 and began his federal career as an assistant secretary with the Atomic Energy Commission.

From 1966-70, he served as an assistant administrator at the Agency for International Development in Vietnam, overseeing the rebuilding of that nation's economy. In 1975, he directed the Vietnamese resettlement project at Fort Chaffee, Ark., relocating 50,000 refugees in less than eight months. According to those who knew him, he was viewed as "calm in the midst of turmoil and violence, not easily rattled, and possessing a lively sense of humor."

Survivors include his wife, Marcia A. Wiss, and their two children, Christopher C. W. and Joan Merle; three children from his first marriage to the late Barbara McCloskey, who died in the early 1980s, Mark A., Donald G. Jr., and Jean; and seven grandchildren.