Dr. Lonnie MacDonald

Dr. Lonnie MacDonald, M.D., 94, of New York, New York passed away on August 10, 2022 in his beloved hometown of Chester, Pennsylvania. Lonnie was born in Chester, PA to Lonnie McDonald and Rosa McDonald on June 3, 1928. He graduated from Chester High School in 1946 and from Antioch College, in Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1950 with a Bachelor of Science. After completing his education at Antioch, Lonnie entered Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons. After receiving his M.D. in 1954, Dr. MacDonald interned at Bellevue Hospital, and later attended Yale University’s Psychiatric Residence Training Program. While at Yale, he was appointed to the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry’s Committee on Preventive Psychiatry, which contributed to his lifelong interest in the relationship between psychiatry and public health. He pursued this interest at the School of Public Health and Administrative Medicine, and the Psychoanalytic Clinic for Training and Research, both at Columbia University in New York City, and in 1960 he received its Master of Public Health degree in Community Psychiatry. Soon thereafter, Dr. MacDonald became the first Chief of the newly established Community Psychiatry Divisi on of New York City’s Harlem Hospital where he served for over two decades before devoting himself to a thriving private practice, which he maintained until his retirement in 2014. Indeed, the preceding facts tell a fine story of the achievements, accomplishments, and many academic degrees obtained by Dr. MacDonald over the course of his remarkable life, but to the multitude of people whom Lonnie loved and who also loved him dearly, he was much, much more... inspiring, caring, generous, thoughtful, as well as emphatically and impeccably charming and charismatic. Thelonious Monk, the renowned jazz pianist, once said, “a genius is the one most like himself,” and Lonnie was "most like himself” first as a mentor to many, and even more so as a veritable emotional surgeon, of sorts, to all those with whom he interacted. His insights and deep personal perceptions were prescient, penetrating, and incisive and inherently provided encouragement, at the least, and radical healing, at best, to the many who found their way into the pleasure and privilege of his company. Lonnie also maintained a lifelong love and appreciation for three of his teachers at Chester High School (Mrs. Edna Wagner, Mrs. Leah Bloom, and Mrs. Gertrude Weaver) all of whom took a personal interest in his great intelligence and helped nurture his academic development while in high school. He credited Mrs. Edna Wagner for directing him and encouraging him to apply to Antioch College which, upon his admittance and ultimate arrival there, set him on a course of academic excellence that would define a good portion of his adult life. In 2016 his nephew and friend, Nathaniel Covert moved to New York to live with and care for Lonnie at his apartment at Harperley Hall, during the last six years of his life, Lonnie felt a steadfast and abiding trust, gratitude and appreciation. Even until the very end of his life, Lonnie carried with him a deep and abiding love for his entire family, whom he loved and treasured deeply. Lonnie was preceded in death by his father Lonnie and mother Rosa McDonald, five sisters Charlotte Lomax, Mary Brown, Alice Smith, Dorothy Brimmage, and Helen McDonald . Two brothers William McDonald and John McDonald. He is survived by one Niece Rose Kelly and Nephew Nathaniel E. Covert a host of great nieces and nephews and three very dear friends Randolph Dixon, Hal Strickland and Michell Esrick.

Dr. Lonnie MacDonald

June 3, 1928 - August 10, 2022