GMHG co-founder Donald MacDonald left behind a legacy

Staff Report

Throughout the history of Avery County, there has been a handful of influential individuals who have left behind legacies that will benefit generations to come. Among these people include the likes of Rev. Edgar Tufts, Hugh Morton and Agnes MacRae Morton. The community lost another one of these rare spirits on Feb. 18, 2021, with the passing of Donald Frank MacDonald at the age of 94.

MacDonald’s passion for Scottish culture and abundance of energy helped create the lasting tradition that is the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games.

MacDonald’s story, as told by current GMHG President Stephen Quillin, began in Clio, S.C. MacDonald served in the Navy and went on to study journalism at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. After completing his education at UNC, where he crossed paths with Andy Griffith and other influential North Carolinians, he began his career working for the Charlotte News his standard in rebellion to the crown and King George II, which led to a march on Edinburgh and the Jacobites’ final defeat at the Battle of Culloden. until 2015 before returning to the United States for health reasons.

In 1954, MacDonald’s interest in his Scottish ancestry led him to attend the Braemar Gathering in Scotland, which Queen Elizabeth II attended every year and was coronated around this time period. MacDonald not only took advantage of the games to see the Queen in person, but more importantly, he brought back a program from the games that he used as the basis for writing several articles in the Charlotte News about Scotland.

Leading up to the first GMHG, Morton and MacDonald held a media campaign through interviews in newspapers throughout the state, leading the first GMHG to be an instant success.

“He never lost touch with the Games,” Quillin said. “He wasn’t able to attend every year throughout the years, but beginning again in 1990 or so he attended religiously until his health prevented him from attending every year.”

Agnes MacRae Morton, who lived in Linville at the time, thoroughly enjoyed MacDonald’s articles in the Charlotte News and reached out to him to begin planning a similar Scottish event at MacRae Meadows, which she owned, in 1955. MacDonald hit the ground running fundraising, and even brought the Black Watch Regimental Pipe Band, of the third infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland, to perform at the Charlotte Coliseum. MacDonald would don his kilt outside of the Charlotte News and sell tickets to the event which brought in enough money for the duo to hold what would become the first Grandfather Mountain Highland Games on Aug. 19, 1956.

MacDonald’s vast knowledge of Scottish history was apparent during the first GMHG, as the date of Aug. 19 also coincided with the historical date of Scotland’s 1745 rising, also known as the Jacobite Rising. It was on this date that Bonnie Prince Charlie, who considered his father to be the rightful king of Great Britain, raised

“They began the task of planning for the Games back in 1955, and they used all of their connections to be interviewed in state newspapers in Wilmington, Raleigh, Charlotte, all over the place. By the time the Games rolled around in 1956, they drew a crowd beyond their wildest dreams. They had 1,000 people. As Donald used to say, ’Boy, we struck a nerve.’ They really tapped into all the Scottishness that was in North Carolina at the time,” Quillin said.

MacDonald served as the first president of the GMHG. He held the post from 1956 to 1961 before getting married in 1961. In fact, MacDonald and his wife’s wedding took place at the Presbyterian church in Linville and was covered by Life Magazine, as it was held in Gaelic fashion complete with a pipe band and kilts worn by the couple and those in attendance.

Life sent photographers and reporters to interview those in attendance. However, the article never ran in the scheduled edition, since the Nixon and Kennedy debates took precedent in the news cycle. After they wed, MacDonald and his wife moved to Scotland where he lived

Quillin noted that MacDonald’s passion for Scottish culture “gave legs” to a lot of interest present throughout the state. During MacDonald’s life, he would not only found the GMHG but also the Robert Burns Society in Charlotte and the Clan Donald Society. This love and vast knowledge of history was present at the GMHG as well. As Quillin points out, there are many Scottish games held throughout the country, and the GMHG is by no means the largest, but it does feature a unique focus on the gathering of Scottish family societies, of which the festival hosts the most of in the world every year during the second weekend in July.

“That was very much keeping with the vision that Donald and Agnes had right from the get-go,” Quillin said. Also significant for MacDonald throughout his life has been the friendships he formed, especially with Agnes MacRae Morton, as it pertains to the GMHG. Agnes was the mother of Hugh Morton, who was the developer of Grandfather Mountain. On his mother’s side, Hugh’s great-grandfather Donald MacRae first bought the development rights around Grandfather Mountain in 1889 from Wal- ter Waightstill Lenoir, who was the grandson of Revolutionary War officer General William Lenoir. Agnes was older than MacDonald, and played a critical role in providing MacRae Meadows as the site for the Games to be held. Agnes was also responsible for the construction of the Invershiel stone church at the corner of Highway 105 and Tynecastle.

Quillin also held a dear friendship with MacDonald and recollected his personality, as well as memories together as MacDonald traveled back and forth between Scotland and the United States.

“Donald was a large man, six-foot-three or six-footfour. He was very gregarious, knowledgeable, friendly, outgoing, very charismatic. That, and the fact that he could run those articles in the newspaper, he was kind of a pied piper of sorts. He really drew people to the things he was promoting,” Quillin said. “I knew him extremely well. I considered him a good friend, as did my wife. We stayed with him in his home, and he stayed with us in our home in the mountains and our home in Durham. Losing Donald will take a big (chunk) out of our lives for sure. He was really a special man to us.” Furthermore, Quillin shared the story of MacDonald’s Christmas tradition, one which provided quite a spirited celebration of the holiday.

“He was nearly unaffected by age until he was about 90. He was a vigorous man both physically and mentally,” Quillin said. “His Christmas tree each year was decorated with mini-bottles, so that was his tree decoration. He would leave that tree up and leave those bottles on it, and then when he got ready to take the tree down, he would invite all of his neighbors over and they’d take down the tree, and taking down the tree meant you had to drink the bottle that you took off the tree.”

While MacDonald was certainly known for his lively celebrations among friends, he was also accomplished within his chosen profession, both in the US and abroad. MacDonald was awarded the Order of the Long Leaf Pine, the highest civilian honor one can earn in North Carolina. During his time in Scotland, MacDonald worked for the Scottish newspaper The Scotsman, for which he wrote several dozen authoritative articles on the history of the Scottish clans, and he taught journalism at Napier University in Edinburgh. He also wrote a book about the GMHG called “America’s Braemar.”

Among all of his accomplishments, Quillin says that MacDonald’s achievement co-founding the GMHG was the one of which he was most proud, and it is through MacDonald’s effort that people from across the state, nation and world are able to experience the joy the Games brings for generations to come.

“The Games are important to Avery County, and Donald was certainly important to Avery County,” Quillin said. “He had a lot of interests and he was a really great guy. A great guy.”