Craig MacDonald- Historian, Journalist, Author

Craig MacDonald has been a Pulitzer Prize nominee, an author, a newspaper/magazine writer and editor, a nationally-syndicated newspaper columnist, a television producer, a band leader, a promoter of the 1984 Olympics and America's Cup, and a keynote speaker at universities & national conferences.

But he's happiest with his role as a father and husband. He's proud of the success of his family, his son Chris' own popular real estate website (calcoasthomes.com) as well as a 4th Generation writer/editor for newspapers & magazines and his wife, Debbie Stock, a noted photojournalist, who created some of the top travel websites in the country. The family loved to play tennis, ride bikes, and walk together.

He particularly enjoyed writing travel, historical and telecommunications articles with his very creative wife, who provided fantastic illustrations for books, newspapers, magazines and corporate publications.

Craig, whose college teammate became the NBA's first Slam Dunk Champion, coached his son's National Junior Basketball Leagues' championship team and Christian Youth baseball team. He also loved to speak on both journalism and history and give back while doing so.

The Army veteran was on the President's Advisory Board at Cal State Fullerton and set up the first SeniorNet (in the Los Angeles/Orange County/Inland Empire) at the college's Ruby Gerontology Center. The Pacific Bell Computing Center taught seniors how to use computers to communicate with grandchildren and others around the world as well as do business. He also showed members of Congress how easy it was to use the French Minitel computing system that helped lead to the first major overhaul of the Telecommunications Act in nearly 62 years.

He chaired the Orange County Transportation Coalition deputies, representing the top executives and companies in OC, which helped successfully get Measure M (a 1/2-cent sales tax) passed, that has led to more than $4 billion in transportation improvements.

For years, he spoke at universities, museums, national, state & historical conferences as well as many non-profits. Often, in lieu of pay for his speeches, Rotary Clubs donated polio shots to countries like Afghanistan; museums gave wheelchairs for use in African nations, both Kiwanis and Rotary Clubs donated books to local libraries; PEO and other organizations donated to college scholarships and the Lions Clubs donated several of his and other glasses to underserved communities.

He inspired through his history and religious talks at both Calvary and Presbyterian churches. One of his favorite lectures was about his great, great, great, great grandfather, the Reverend James Caldwell, who he paid homage to in his book, "The Rebel Reverend: An American Revolution Hero."

He encouraged others. The Phi Kappa Phi graduate of San Jose State, a member of Phi Alpha Theta (the national history honor society), wrote 24 books, including the best-selling "Old West Christmas-Tales With a Twist," which he co-authored with his father, an English professor at San Jose State University. It was selected as the California State Library's "Book of the Week." Everyone in his family growing up were published authors and athletes, including his mother who was a 4th generation San Franciscan, and his sister who taught in the San Jose school system.