Joseph M. McDonough ’50

Joe died Oct. 22, 2010, in Palo Alto, Calif., after a full life in academia and social activism.

During World War II he served for three years in the Navy, participating in four major battles and winning a Purple Heart when
his destroyer was sunk by a kamikaze off Okinawa.

At Princeton, he roomed with Norb Nelson, Wally Little, Johnny Gebhard, Chuck Kennedy ’46, and his brother, Don McDonough ’52. He was basketball team manager and Terrace Club treasurer. In his senior year, he married Leah Brooks. Joe majored in psychology and later received a master’s degree from the University of Miami. He and Leah earned Ph.D.s in clinical psychology at Michigan State and moved to Palo Alto in 1961.

Joe spent the first half of his career with the Veterans Administration, running psychiatric wards, working with schizophrenics, and administering work-for-pay rehab programs. At age 50, he left hospital work, and for the next 25 years was a professor of psychology at the College of San Mateo. He was an early activist in the anti-Vietnam War movement, president of the teachers’ union, and recipient of the California Federation of Teachers’ highest state award in 2000.

He is survived by Leah; his daughter, Susan; and granddaughter Caroline. To them, we extend sincere sympathy.