(20 Feb. 1916-1 Nov. 1989), barber. (Gerald McDonald, Gerald “Paddy” McDonald, Gerald (Paddy) McDonald, Gerry McDonald) Born probably in Alexandria, GC. Parents: Patrick (Paddy) McDonald and his wife Mary Ann McCormick.

     Gerald McDonald operated a barbershop at Martintown from 1936 to 1941. From 1941 to 1945 he served in the RCAF. In January 1945, he bought the barbershop business at Alexandria of a long-time Alexandria barber, Joe Lalonde, who intended to concentrate thereafter on his wholesale tobacco business. (Glengarry News 19 Jan. 1945) Beginning work on 30 January, Gerald McDonald maintained his shop and business over more than 40 years at the same location in Alexandria till he retired and closed the shop in Nov. 1985. However, in the last years he had operated only part-time on account of illness. In a photograph that accompanied the newspaper story of the closing of his barbershop (Glengarry News 27 Nov. 1985) he looks old and ill, with shrunken features. Roman Catholic. Place of death: Cornwall General Hospital. Burial was in St. Finnan’s cemetery. His obituary firmly defining two main roles of his professional life stated “From 1945 to 1985 he was a barber and local historian on Main Street in Alexandria.” In his early years as an Alexandria barber, he was a member of the town council.

     He was married in 1942 to Gertrude Macdonell of St. Raphael’s, daughter of Angus A. Macdonell. (four children) She was a granddaughter of Duncan H. McKenzie the contractor, and her sister was married to Lloyd McHugh. In 1989, a few months before Gerald’s death, their son Lt. Col. Robert MacKenzie McDonald was promoted to commandant of Canadian Forces, Air Traffic Control Training Unit, in Cornwall. (GN 5 & 12 July 1989, with portrait)

     The large front window of the small, very plain barber shop looked out on the busy life of Main Street and Mill Square. The small back window looked out on the narrow Garry River, which crosses the Main Street at this point, though the river has been so effectively covered over by paving and buildings on Main Street that few passers-by or motorists there have cause to remember that there is a river anywhere nearby, and that they are, in fact, crossing it. Many older men liked to gather at the barbershop for company and talk. These men came to be known as the “Senate,” and the barbershop itself was sometimes, accordingly, called the Senate. One of these men was Gerald’s father, Paddy. The conversation of the Senate was about politics, sports, local doings of every kind, and GC-area history and genealogy. Clarence Ostrom, whose shop was just up the street, called in often at the door with some latest piece of information about local events. Seldom lingering for detailed discussions, until perhaps his later years, he was nevertheless one of the people most consistently involved with the Senate. The men of the Senate also, it is reported, liked practical jokes, and sometimes set false reports going for the amusement of watching the results.

     In one of his Rambling Reporter columns, Eugene Macdonald with warm appreciation hailed the 30th aniversary of Alexandria’s barber shop “Senate.” Characteristically, he took the opportunity to abuse the Senate in Ottawa, and delared that few would miss it if it were abolished. But “What,” he asked “would we do without our local senate?” (GN 23 Jan. 1975)

     Gerald McDonald was an affable, if somewhat reserved man. As the years closed in, there was a touch about him of the elderly aristocrat. Perhaps in his early, today wholly-forgotten years, he had been a bit of a young aristocrat. He came very close to being a living legend, partly because of the Senate, and partly because, simply, of who he was as a personality. For people who had won much great financial success in life, it was often a matter of pride to know that he remembered them by name. As he himself pointed out, he had a number of relatives who taught in universities. Interesting material quoted from interviews with McDonald in David M. Rayside’s study of politics and society in Alexandria, A Small Town in Modern Times (1991), shows how this intelligent and thoughtful man saw the history of Alexandria over his years in the barbershop, and to some degree how he viewed himself. One of Gerald McDonald’s stories is said to have been the germ which developed into Ethel Ostrom’s published children’s story about a baby dinosaur in Alexandria. A barber called “Greg” appears in the illustrations to the story, but has no evident resemblance to the real-life Gerald.

     The former barbershop is now (2008) a second-hand store. There is a large outdoor mural facing Mill Square by Odile Têtu showing Gerald cutting hair with the “Senate” in session. When Réal Huot (b. 11 Oct. 1919), one of the Alexandria Senate, died 21 Feb. 2002, it was believed that only one member of the Senate remained, Gilbert Sabourin, a former butcher. Huot was the son of Joseph A. Réal Huot.

Ottawa Citizen (death notice) 3 Nov. 1989 * Glengarry News 8 & 15 Nov. 1989 includes tribute by Angus H. McDonell * Bruce Hayes, “The Senate Is in Session at McDonald’s Barbershop,” GN 30 May 1984 (with two characteristic portraits & a view of the inside of the shop) * Rhodes Grant, ii, 58 (also 56-58 for the role of a barber shop in a small town at this time) * gravestone, St. Finnan’s cemetery * McCormicks 48-51 * Ostom 34, 262 * personal knowledge * Bibliography of Glengarry 115, 141 * obituary of his wife’s mother, Standard Freeholder 16 Feb. 1945 * Dane Lanken, “Lacrosse,” Canadian Geographic (Oct./Nov. 1984: McDonald and the “Senate” mentioned * New Hairstyling Shop Located in ‘Senate,’” GN 7 Oct. 1987 * advert. of clothing store called “Paddy’s,” in Gerald’s old premises, showing a very elderly-looking Gerald in group photo, GN 7 Nov. 2001 * Réal Huot: obituary tribute by Greg Peerenboom, death notice, GN 27 Feb. 2002 (portrait of Huot) * for history of mural see GN 22 July (illustr.) and 5 Aug. (editorial) & 21 Dec. (advert. for print of mural) 1998 * reports for active duty, RCAF, GN 27 June 1941 * estate sale of his widow, GN 26 Sept. 2001