Carlyle Adolf “Mac” McDonald, age 93, of Winchester, Virginia died peacefully as he was held in the Light by friends and family, Saturday November 24 at Winchester Medical Center. He was born in Greenville County, Virginia, on January 25, 1919, to Mary Cheely McDonald and William McDonald. When he was a toddler, his family moved to Richmond, Virginia, where his father attended Union Theological Seminary. Carlyle was raised in Powhatan County, where he graduated from Powhatan High School. He was president of his senior class. He was secretary of the Student Christian Association at Hampton-Sydney College (Farmville, Virginia), where he received a Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry Magna Cum Laude in 1939. He received his Master’s of Theology Degree at Union Theological Seminary, and was called to the Opequon Group of Presbyterian Churches in Frederick County, which included Opequon, Opequon Chapel, New Second Opequon, Burnt and Round Hill Presbyterian Churches.

In 1944, Reverend McDonald married Margaret Stone Lupton of Winchester, Virginia. Also, in 1944, he volunteered as a Chaplain in the US Army with the 571st Battalion until the end of World War II. His last assignment in the Army was Protestant Chaplain for the Third US Army.

After service in the Army, he served Presbyterian churches in Virginia, North Carolina, and West Virginia. During these years, he assisted with the summer programs at Massanetta Springs Bible Conference Center near Harrisonburg, Virginia. He also served briefly as CEO and Chaplain at Vista Del Rio, a retirement home in Kansas City, Missouri.

McDonald loved hunting, fishing, gardening, and Boy Scout activities. He was an Eagle Scout.

During his ministry, he was Moderator of four Presbyteries in the mid-Atlantic states. In 1954, the Prospect Church (Mooresville, North Carolina), where he served early in his career, was named Rural Church of the South of all denominations.

He was an avid woodworker, having made the antique furniture replicates which graced the McDonald home.

In October of 1983, he was honorably retired and was made Pastor Emeritus of the Providence Presbyterian Church of Virginia Beach, of which he was Organizing Minister. After his retirement, he and his wife moved to Frederick County, Virginia, where he continued his service in the church as Pastor Emeritus in the Presbyterian Parish of the Valleys and Parish Associate of the First Presbyterian Church of Winchester. He also became the first Chaplain of Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community, where he and Mrs. McDonald moved in 2007.

Surviving are his wife Margaret S. Lupton McDonald (Tony), and their children David Lupton McDonald of Fresno, California; Mary Victoria McDonald of Conway, Arkansas; and Bruce Scott McDonald and his wife Lori of Sanibel Island, Florida; grandchildren Michelle Anne McDonald and Blake Gillett McDonald, and great-grandson Aden Gillett Salinas, all of Fresno, California; and two sisters, Margaret M. White of King William, Virginia and Ellen M. Minet of Oyster Bay, New York. A son, William Carlyle McDonald, died in childhood.

The memorial service will be held in the Chapel at Westminster Canterbury, 300 Westminster Canterbury Dr., Winchester, on Tuesday, November 27 at 10:00 am, with the Reverends Elizabeth Lewis and Richard Reifsnyder officiating. Committal will follow at Hopewell Friends Meeting graveyard, 604 Hopewell Road, Clearbrook, Virginia.

Memorial gifts may be made to Massanetta Springs Camp and Conference Center, 712 Massanetta Spring Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22801 (contact: Fred Holbrook at 540-434-3829).