11/7/2009 12:49:00 PM
C.A. McDonald: Road builder, community volunteer remembered
| |
|
 |
| Long-time Camp Verde resident, road builder and volunteer, C. A. McDonald, passed away on Thursday. McDonald's volunteer work helped to build and maintain Butler Park, Area Del Loma and the library. |
|
CAMP VERDE - You have probably heard of a time when a man's word was all you needed. When the call for help went out and the community showed up. Or when tax deductions were not an excuse for charity.
That was the time when Clarence Allen McDonald lived. And that is the way he lived.
Because he had an uncle by the name of Clarence, he was known as C.A. McDonald. And for the 40 some years he lived in Camp Verde, you could say he cut a wide swath.
C.A. McDonald passed away on Thursday afternoon. With him he took a piece of Camp Verde's history, along with the friendship of what many folks have described quite simply as an honest man.
"C.A. McDonald was a very, very honest man," says Camp Verde Mayor Bob Burnside. "If you ever wanted to enter into an agreement with that man, you looked him straight in the eye and told him what you would like to do. He either said yay or nay. Then he'd shake your hand and you'd never need to worry from then on."
Born in Mayer in 1929, McDonald worked on several cattle ranches as a young man, including the historic Orme Ranch. He married Phyllis in May 1949 and eventually took a job with the State Road Department, first on a survey crew and then in equipment maintenance.
C.A. and Phyllis came to Camp Verde in the mid-1960s to establish a highway department maintenance yard and never left.
Over time he dabbled in construction and dirt moving on the side. He finally quit the state and went into business for himself, incorporating with his brother Bruce as McDonald Brothers Construction in 1969.
Over the next 20-plus years, in spite of a heart attack in 1985, C.A. and his brother, his son Randy and his grandsons, built many of the town's roads and much of its infrastructure.
He paved Main Street, built the roads in Fort River Caves, the Rio Verde Ranchos Subdivision, Park Verde and Verde Park Subdivisions, and improvements to State Route 260 and Salt Mine Road, to name just a few.
But it is not what he did for a living so much as what he did for nothing that made C.A. McDonald who he was.
Back before Camp Verde was incorporated, when volunteers did any and all community projects, he was a major contributor. Included in his list of donations are the construction of Butler Park, Arena Del Loma, the current library site and the parade grounds at Fort Verde before it was a state park.
"He did a lot of help for the community," says long time friend and former Camp Verde mayor Tap Parson. "He was an exceptional person in doing things for the community. He is well thought of by just about everyone."
McDonald was also a long time member of the Camp Verde Historical Society, served on the Camp Verde School Board and the board of the Camp Verde Cemetery and helped establish the town's road department when the Camp Verde first incorporated.
And, regardless of what he was doing, he was seldom seen not in the company of at least one dog, a trait his son Randy says dates back to his cowboy days.
"Dad loved his dogs and he loved his cattle. Every year when it came time to gather up cattle he'd be out helping someone," Randy says. "He loved his road building equipment, but I think if he had a choice he would rather have been ranching."
C.A. McDonald is survived by his wife of 60 years, Phyllis, their three children, Randy, Irene (Rezzonico) and Connie (Gray), along with 14 grandchildren and 37 great-grandchildren.
There will be no public funeral service. However, the family has invited friends to a celebration of C.A.'s life on Saturday, Nov. 21, at 11 a.m. at Campo De Ensueno on the corner of Camp Lincoln Road and Montezuma Castle Highway.
|
Article Comment Submission Form
|
|
