John W. McDonald

South Portland-John W. McDonald passed away peacefully on December 20, 2022 at SMHC Medical Center in Sanford, Maine. Author, storyteller, and radio-show host, John is best known for his book “A Moose and a Lobster Walk Into a Bar” and his long-running WGAN call-in talk show, The John McDonald Show. As a Maine humorist, he was also well-known for his unique stage show that he performed throughout Maine and across the country. John got his start early, finding inspiration for his future career in the lunchroom of St. Mary’s School in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He told jokes that were funny enough to make his friend Mike McKenna spit his milk in laughter. As the other kids at the table yelled, “Gross, McKenna!”, John quietly basked in his own success and marveled at the power of humor. He decided that there was no better feeling than making others laugh, and he spent the rest of his life doing so. Born in 1944 to Jacqueline and Thomas Way McDonald, John was one of seven children. With so many siblings and friends around, John always had an audience on which to practice his jokes, and his ability to spin a humorous yarn grew stronger through the years. Every summer the family left Pawtucket for the Maine coast, where John and his brother and sisters spent their long summer days in and around the water. John particularly liked riding his bike down to the docks where the fishermen swapped stories. He filed each story away in his memory and paid attention to the lilting accents of the fishermen, entertaining his family with stories from the docks when he got home. After graduating from Providence College where he pulled his fair share of pranks (too numerous to mention here), John embarked on an English teaching career in Providence. In his personal life, John borrowed a car from his sister Joan to help the friend-of-a-friend move to a new apartment. The young woman he helped move became the love of his life. Ann and John were married in 1969, honeymooned in Maine, and moved there soon after. It was living in the small town of Cherryfield, Maine, that John started his long and diverse career as a writer, performer, and radio professional. He freelanced for the Bangor Daily News, covering town meetings, elections, and other events in Downeast coastal Maine. He also wrote a column that allowed him to stray from the strict journalistic formula of who/what/where/how, and make profound observations tinged with humor. John also worked summers as a professional actor for Acadia Repertory Theater in Mount Desert, and later became the founding director of The Grand Theater in Ellsworth. Two esteemed Maine storytellers, Marshall Dodge and Captain Kendall Morse, performed at The Grand in 1980 and invited John to perform onstage with them. It was a turning point in John’s life. Hearing a packed audience laugh at his stories was better than seeing Mike McKenna spit milk so many years ago. He performed humorous Maine stories before audiences for the next four decades of his life. His shows took him all over Maine from Fort Kent to Kittery, as well as to the Mark Twain House in Connecticut, and a cruise through the fjords of Alaska where he was booked as the celebrity performer. All the while at home, John wove stories for his wife, children, friends, and extended family. His off-stage stories were much less formal than his on-stage stories, but just as entertaining. Some were fabricated and others were from real life. But even his true stories had an element of fiction in them, just as his made-up stories had a grain of truth. John and Ann raised three children and lived at different times in Cherryfield, South Paris, Otisfield, and Portland. John also worked for years in radio, first as a DJ at WDEA in Ellsworth, then as a copywriter at WPOR in Portland where he won awards for his creative, catchy, and sometimes funny advertisements. He became the voice of Yankee Ford and Taste of Maine Restaurant. He began filling in as a substitute talk-show host for WGAN in South Portland, and eventually landed his own weekend talk-show that ran for nearly 30 years. The John McDonald Show focused on politics and current events, and John interviewed local and national newsmakers, including former President Barack Obama. However, John also found ways to weave stories into the show just for fun. Every 4th of July, for example, listeners enjoyed hearing the adventures of the (fictional) Cherryfield Chowder and Marching Society Band, as they piled their instruments into a ramshackle school bus and made their way from Cherryfield down Route 1 to South Portland, to play Souza marches live in the WGAN studio. Every year despite whatever misadventures they had on the road, no matter how long they sat in Wiscasset traffic, they arrived just in time to play their songs for the entertainment of radio listeners. A prolific writer, he also used his radio show to plug the six books he authored over the years, including “Maine Trivia” and “Down the Road a Piece: A Storyteller’s Guide to Maine.” After John’s radio show went off the air in 2020, his health and memory began to fail. Ann helped him with daily tasks, assisted by the home-health organization Comfort Keepers. Following a stroke he moved to Pinnacle Health & Rehab in North Berwick. Even at Pinnacle, he continued to tell stories despite his failing memory, and his quick wit made the nurses laugh. He died in the hospital after a brief illness. John is survived by his wife, Ann McDonald; sisters Joan Duffy, Jean Diemert, Margery Frisch and brother Michael McDonald and their families; son and daughter-in law Joshua and Connie McDonald; daughter and son-in law Rebecca and Michael Pritchard, granddaughter Alison Pritchard; and son and daughter-in-law Jeremiah and Magali McDonald. Visiting hours celebrating John’s life will be held on Tuesday, December 27, 2022 from 4:00pm to 6:00pm at the Conroy-Tully Walker South Portland Chapel, 1024 Broadway, South Portland. Prayers will be recited at the chapel at 9:15am on Wednesday, December 28, 2022 followed by a 10:00am Mass of Christian Burial at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, Congress Street, Portland, ME. To view John’s memorial page, or to share an online condolence, please visit www.ConroyTullyWalker.com In lieu of flowers, those who wish may make memorial contributions in John's memory to: Catholic Charities Maine - www.ccmaine.org, or Camp Susan Curtis - www.susancurtis.org, or to the Maine Lobstermen’s Association - www.mainelobstermen.org