John Russell Macdonald

John R. MacDonald, aka, Russ was born to Glenna and George MacDonald in Great Falls, Montana on January 7th 1942. He was raised and schooled in Great Falls. After High School, he worked for Boeing and Lockheed. He joined the Navy and served 2 terms in Viet Nam as a hospital corpsman on the Oriskany. He returned after his service to the San Francisco Bay Area. At that time he worked for Ampex as a computer operator. Wanting to become a computer programmer, he took classes at DeAnza College in Cupertino, California. He married Susan Lynne Peavy on December 12, 1970, fifty years ago! They had two children Robin, 1974, and Aaron, 1976. They lived in San Jose, California. He joined the staff of Hewlett-Packard, with the help of a friend. He was a computer programmer by then. They moved to Spokane, Washington in 1979 as a founding family for Hewlett-Packard. They lived in Spokane for 23 years. Both children went to the University of
Washington. They both stayed in the Seattle area after college. Wanting to be close to the family, Susan and Russ moved to Kitsap County in 2004. Robin was married and had moved to Bainbridge Island. There are now two grandchildren, Josh age 16 and Emily age 12. His favorite treats were malt balls, peanut butter cups and peanut butter cookies, in abundance. His favorite sport was to go crabbing for Dungeness, it didn’t matter if some of the rock crab snuck in. Salmon fishing was also a favorite sport, then the salmon and crab became sparse. So that was the end of those sports.
Russ died March 23, 2021, at 7:18 am at St. Michael’s hospital. Graveside service will be at Hillcrest Cemetery on April 2, 2021 at 1:00 pm.
Instead of flowers please, make a donation to Wounded Veterans or the Humane Society. Any similar charity will be appropriate. Thank you

Arrangements are entrusted to Cook Family Funeral Home on Bainbridge Island, WA