Théodore Macdonald Explained

Théodore Harney MacDonald (25 November 1933 – 2011) was a Canadian polymath, professor of mathematics and health, and human rights defender.[1] [2]

Background

MacDonald was raised in Montreal, Quebec, as one of six children. His father was Cuthbert Goodridge MacDonald (1897-1967), editor of The Montreal Herald and a poet.[3] [4] Cuthbert's mother was the writer, Elizabeth Roberts MacDonald.[5]

Reports differ as to his early childhood. One account says that his mother left the family when he was ten and that the children were largely raised by the oldest daughter, then aged thirteen.[2] Another says that he ran away from home, repelled by his father,[6] but this seems unlikely because he gave praise for his father in a book preface.[4] All agree that he was largely educated by Jesuits and that his precocious talents led to him finishing school curriculum several years early. All obituaries also report he obtained a Licentiate in Music (L.Mus) by the age of twelve.[7] After this, he taught music before completing a second degree in mathematics and epidemiology from McGill University at the age of seventeen.

He then worked in the Canadian Wildlife Service and (possibly) served for Canada in the Korean War. One obituary says that he was captured by North Korea but defected to them at the end of the war in 1953, aged twenty, travelling by ship with East German allies and settling there to complete a medical degree. He remained a socialist for the rest of his life. He also had a C. Psychol., possibly an MA or MSc from Columbia University, and PhD, possibly two (institution and discipline unknown, possibly medicine or biology and one source suggests from Glasgow and Delaware[8]).

In 1960, MacDonald participated in organized, nonviolent protest against racial segregation in the US southern states led by Martin Luther King Jr. and was eventually exiled from the US (he may later have studied at Columbia and Santa Clara),[9] probably because he also began visiting Cuba and was known to authorities as a communist.[2] MacDonald was in Perth, at the University of Western Australia, 1961-1963, and again in the 1970s, working at Monash University and the University of Newcastle,[10] and had a Chair at the relatively young University of the South Pacific in 1972 and 1973 before being banned from entering Fiji on the grounds of 'political activity' in 1973.[11] In all he spent over a decade in Australia, then relocated to London in the early 1980s, eventually settling in Littlehampton, on England's south coast, where he completed several books after retirement.

He was married to Elizabeth Scammell (1936-2016) between 1962 and 1980 and adopted her two daughters, Lynda and Anne, from her previous marriage and was legal parent to her son Ross, but was estranged from him from the mid-1980s. Elizabeth and Theo had two children, a daughter Sara and son Gareth (1968-1988). MacDonald was subsequently married to Chris and had one child, Matthew, with another adopted, nine grandchildren, and one great-grandson by 2011. One son, Matthew, was sentenced during the May Day riots in London in 2000, later establishing the Cambridge Anti-Capitalist Action Society while at the university and being expelled for various pro-poor actions.[12] [13] [14]

Career

MacDonald worked a doctor, consultant, and as an academic in several disciplines. Positions known:

Positions not confirmed:

Contributions

Aside from developing strategies for mathematics education in the 1970s and 1980s, MacDonald argued that the major causes of ill-health in developing countries are not bacteria and viruses or even war and natural disasters but poverty. He asserted that addressing inequality would reduce health inequities.

Several of his later books analysed the Cuban education system and its remarkable system of training of medical personnel. This expanded into praise for Cuba's economic model, contrasted with Western market-led economies.

His broader normative agenda was to reform global finance and international trade, linked to the looming environmental crisis. The liberalization of trade, he argued, led to the privatizing of global health care, with negative outcomes for those living in poverty. In one of his books he argues for Health Impact Assessment to precede any multinational corporate operations.[17]

MacDonald was a supporter of the United Nations but a critic of the World Health Organization's failure to promote health as a basic human right, particularly after 1990.

Brunel University still (2018) offers the Public Health and Health Promotion MSc that he is strongly identified with.[18]

Publications

MacDonald gave all book royalties to Cuba or other international projects. He mainly wrote by hand.[6] In addition to dozens of books, are over 100 articles not all traceable.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Tribute to Littlehampton professor Theodore MacDonald.
  2. Web site: MacDonald Theodore. www.grahamstevenson.me.uk.
  3. Web site: New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia. w3.stu.ca.
  4. Book: Sacrificing the WHO to the Highest Bidder. Theodore. Macdonald. James. Raftery. 22 March 2008. CRC Press. 978-1846192524.
  5. Book: Caswell . Edward Samuel. Edward S. Caswell . Canadian Singers and Their Songs: A Collection of Portraits, Autograph Poems and Brief Biographies . 1925 . Toronto . McClelland & Stewart . 244 . 13 February 2022 . en.
  6. Web site: In Memoriam Theodore MacDonald 1933-2011. FRFI.
  7. Web site: MacDonald Theodore – Graham Stevenson.
  8. The former is traceable. T.H. MacDonald. 1959. Estimates of Length of Larval Life in Three Species of Lamprey Found in Britain. Journal of Animal Ecology, 28(2): 293-298 and a 1960 PhD is on record at Glasgow University. Possibly MacDonald, since funded by a Glasgow-McGill fellowship and he identifies a Glasgow degree in several books. MacDonald TF is listed as having moved to Western Ontario University in 1959
  9. Web site: WebTYs.com . Academic Author: MacDonald, Théodore H . Mellenpress.com . 2018-09-26.
  10. Web site: Paul, Chris, Mathew and Theo MacDonald, the University of Newcastle, Australia.
  11. Web site: A Tribute to Professor Theodore MacDonald (1933-2011). 20 July 2016.
  12. Web site: Eton truant gets six months for rioting. Sandra. Laville. 24 August 2000. www.telegraph.co.uk.
  13. Web site: Eton May Day boy back for more. 12 April 2012.
  14. News: Is anti-globalisation just mindless ranting?. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/is-anti-globalisation-just-mindless-ranting-130267.html . 2022-05-07 . subscription . live.
  15. Elfituri . A. A. . Elmahaishi . M. S. . MacDonald . T. H. . 1998 . Role of health education programmes within the Libyan community . . 5 . 2 . 268–276. 10.26719/1999.5.2.268 . 10793803 .
  16. Web site: Human Rights and Social Justice Research Institute . Archive.londonmet.ac.uk . 2018-09-26.
  17. Faunce . Thomas A. . 2007-05-23 . Health, Trade and Human Rights . JAMA . en . 297 . 20 . 2287 . 10.1001/jama.297.20.2288 . 0098-7484.
  18. Web site: Public Health and Health Promotion MSc | Brunel University London . Brunel.ac.uk . 2018-09-26.
  19. Book: Removing the Barriers to Global Health Equity - Theodore Harney MacDonald - Google Books . 2016-07-06 . 9781846193088 . 2018-09-26. MacDonald . Theodore Harney .
  20. Web site: Education Revolution: Tribune Magazine 28 May-3 June. Administrator. manifestopress.org.uk.

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