| REMEMBERING DAN MCDONALD
By Bob Weaver 2007
Well-known Calhoun citizen and civic leader Dan McDonald of Sycamore has died at the age of 81.
He had been the chairman of the Republican party in Calhoun, a member of the Little Kanawha Area Development Authority, served on the Little Kanawha Parkway Authority, and the Calhoun Building Authority, among many other dutiful assignments he accepted.
 Not unlike his father "Gentlemen Bernard," Dan (pictured left) humbly and respectfully dedicated himself to public life and could be counted on to always show-up.
A native of Calhoun, he retired from corporate life in 1987, he and his wife Skip returned to the McDonald's ancestral farm on Sycamore.
The McDonald family first came to Calhoun in the 1850s, eventually owning about 2500 acres, stretching from Steer Creek to the Mt. Zion Ridge - historically known as the McDonald Woods. Their family history is laden with teachers, doctors and engineers, educated people before education caught on and their involvement in the Civil War.
Skip, who was from northern Virginia, reveled in the reception she received in Calhoun, calling it "a loving community."
If you ever had the chance to visit Dan and Skip, you would re-learn the word gracious.
So empty is the glory Dan received for his efforts, any notable expression of gratitude is belated, but most worthy.
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