William Johnson McDonald (December 21 1844 – February 8 1926) was a Paris, Texas banker who left $850,000 (the bulk of his fortune) to the University of Texas to endow an astronomical observatory. Some sources give his date of death as February 6.
The bequest was unexpected, and his will was contested, but after prolonged legal disputes the university received the money. At the time, the university had no faculty of astronomy, so in 1932 they formed a collaboration with Otto Struve at the University of Chicago, who supplied astronomers.
The McDonald Observatory is named after him, with Otto Struve becoming the first director.
McDonald was the eldest of the three sons of Sarah Johnson and Henry Graham McDonald of Paris, Texas. As a young man, he served as a private in the Confederate Army. He became wealthy through his businesses as a lawyer and a banker, but remained frugal his entire life. He never married and had no children.
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Last updated: 08-13-2005 20:13:32
