Richard T. McDonald

Richard Thornton McDonald, a beloved husband, father, and grandfather, died peacefully at his home Thursday after a long illness. He was 89 years old.

Rich was born on June 14, 1935, to Joseph and Irene McDonald and grew up in Maplewood, New Jersey, the middle of three boys. He went to Seton Hall Prep and then to Seton Hall University, where he studied theology before joining the seminary. He was ordained as a Catholic priest in May 1961 and was a curate first at the Church of the Guardian Angel in Allendale, then at Saint Rose of Lima in Newark.

The 1960s were a tumultuous time for Newark, but Rich loved working there. A friend later said Rich was one of the few priests in the parish who walked around the neighborhood, talking to the people who lived there whether they went to Saint Rose or not. And when he saw something wrong, he did something about it.

He helped start a youth center named after Saint Martin de Porres, the first American Black saint, and, when he learned the parish’s drum and bugle corps did not let a lot of Black children join, started one for them and named it Saint Martin’s Troubadoures. During the Newark rebellion in 1967, when a bus company wouldn’t drive into Newark to take the troupe to a competition, Rich marched them about a dozen blocks up Orange Street to meet the bus in East Orange. They were in full uniform and played the whole time.

“We did get some stares from people driving up on the street,” he said much later when retelling the story, one of his favorite anecdotes from his time in Newark.

It was in Newark where Rich met the love of his life, Patricia Ann. They married in 1970 and they remained together until he breathed his last breath, more than 54 years. They raised five children: Dennis, Amy, Tara, Terrence, and Maura. As much as he loved being a priest, he loved being a husband and father more, even if raising five children meant he had an array of jobs to put food on the table. He worked as a drug and alcohol counselor, handled addiction services for the state of New Jersey, moonlighted once as a cashier at Rickel, and even delivered newspapers before dawn. No job was too small.

He never lost his sense of humor. If you worked with him and he needed a favor from you, you were his “new best friend.” If you were his children and he was driving you to school, he’d blast classical music on the radio and pretend to be conducting it just to embarrass you. If you were a nurse who did something nice for him, he’d tell you to take the rest of the day off.

Rich is survived by Patricia Ann; Dennis and Valerie Thompson; Amy; Tara and Tara Caulder; Terrence and Greg Kahn; and Maura and Michael Toal, as well as by his three grandchildren, Nico, Erin, and Cillian, and countless friends and family members. He will be missed.