Phillip C. McDonald

Philip C. McDonald, 78, of Gainesville, died peacefully in his sleep on January 27 at home after an extended illness. 

Phil is survived by his loving wife Joanne, his son Cade and his wife Ali of Atlanta, his daughter Anna and her husband Nicholas of Brooklyn, NY, his grandchildren Alexis, Kate, Juliet and Albert, his brother Mike and his wife Bonnie, his sister-in-law Susan Portman, his brothers-in-law W.P. Portman, Jr. and Clint Spencer, and many cousins, nieces and nephews.  He was one of a kind, and answered to the names “Mack,” “Pop Pop,” and “the Unit.”   

Born in Brunswick, GA in 1946, he was the owner/operator of Shoney’s restaurants in the Northeast Georgia area; his favorite gig was as the proprietor of the Chattahoochee Golf Course Grill in the 1990’s.  In a poem about Phil published in The Paris Review in 2009, he was described as a “writer of limericks,” a “scholar of tackle,” and a “strange understander of small children.”  This was all true.  His great loves were fishing, the natural world, his grandchildren, and Gunsmoke, and he enjoyed being alive to the end.  Illness prevented him from visiting his most sacred fishing spots on St. Simon’s Island, so the family will hold a celebration of his life there in the summer.  He asked that the exact location of the fishing holes not be disclosed.  

Memorial Park Riverside Chapel 989 Riverside Drive Gainesville, Georgia is in charge of arrangements

For online condolences www.memorialparkfuneralhomes.com .