Frederick Duncan MacDonald, a scion of railway postal history 
collecting, passed away March 6, 2012 in Winter Park, Florida. 

He was born March 15, 1941 in South Amboy, New Jersey to Alex and 
Florence MacDonald and attended Rutgers University. After a period 
working as a heavy machinery operator he took over management of the 
family businesses; D. & M. Excavating, Inc., Lessex Equipment Rental, 
Inc., and Charmac Realty. His work with Levitt & Sons developments 
amounted to about 20 years of his career. Among the achievements 
during this time was building runways at Newark Airport and earth 
moving for McDonald's restaurants all over NJ. 

Fred was married nearly fifty years to Carol Ann (Pederson) MacDonald. 
He is survived by her, two daughters - Janice MacDonald of Clearwater, 
FL and Jean Nordahl of Las Vegas, NV and a son, John MacDonald of 
Sayreville, NJ. He was preceded in death by a son, James MacDonald. 

Fred was a 50 year member of St. Stephens Masonic Lodge #63, founded 
the James Gominger Chapter Order of DeMolay, and was an 11 time Worthy 
Patron in Amboy #151 Chapter, Order of the Eastern Star, South Amboy 
NJ. He was awarded the Degree of Chevalier from Aberdeen Chapter Order 
of DeMolay in 1961

He was a past President (1992-2001) and past Treasurer of the Mobile 
Post Office Society (2001-2006.) He maintained the Railway Post 
Office cataloging effort on the death of Charles Towle and was author 
of the Catalog of New Jersey Railway Postal Markings, with the 
inclusion of John Kay's route markings, in 1984. He was the author of 
Postal Markings of United States Waterway Routes, 1839-1997 in 1997 
and The United States Railway Post Office Postmark Catalog with 
Charles L. Towle with the revision completed in 2004. 

He was awarded the United States Philatelic Classics Society's Stanley 
B. Ashbrook Cup in 1998 and was inducted into the Writer's Unit Number 
30 Hall of Fame in 2003.

Fred was among the most generous individuals in philately. As former Railway
Postal Clerk Sidney Fingerhood put it, "Whenever I went to pay for a drink
or a meal, he acted as though I had fish hooks in my pocket, never allowing
the check to go to anyone else."

A memorial will be held in New Jersey in April, presented by St Stephens 
Lodge #63 F & AM at their Lodge.