Ready, willing and able.
This was the simple credo by which a generous man lived his life, and the philosophy adopted by the nonprofit he started to give homeless men and women a chance.
Doe Fund founder and president George McDonald died Tuesday after a battle with lung cancer, but not before he made an impact on the city by reaching into its gritty underbelly to put people back on their feet.
“No person has done more to improve the lives of homeless adult men in New York City than George,” the company said in a statement announcing McDonald’s death. “His fiery Irish Catholic spirit gave him the gall to fight relentlessly for those overlooked. His unwavering patriotism motivated him to make the promise of America accessible to those for whom it was out of reach.”
McDonald, 76, of Manhattan, started the Doe Fund after a homeless woman known as Mama Doe died of neglect on a bench after police kicked her out of Grand Central Terminal on a cold Christmas Day in 1985.
McDonald was working as a Garment District executive at the time, and in the mid 1980s, he volunteered to feed hundreds of homeless in the terminal and at a nearby soup kitchen daily at 10 p.m., including Mama Doe.
“They arrested me four times for doing that, for violating governmental administration,” he said of his efforts in Grand Central, in a 2017 Daily News interview. All the charges were eventually dropped, he added.
New York Mayoral candidate George McDonald listens to other Republican mayoral candidates during a television debate in New York Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2013. (Craig Ruttle/AP)
In 1987, he and his wife, Harriet Karr-McDonald, formed the Doe Foundation, with a mission of finding employment for indigent New Yorkers, based out of the couple’s Upper East Side home, he told The News.
The organization swelled to a $65 million operation with more than 500 employees, many of them former homeless clients.
“George McDonald founded @TheDoeFund with the understanding that hiring & housing homeless individuals made New York City a better place,” tweeted Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer. “He was a man of great generosity. He will be missed.”
The Doe Fund has also opened or is building more than 1,000 affordable housing units and nearly 900 transitional beds for more than 1,000 housing for seniors, veterans, low-income families and people living with HIV/AIDS and other physical and mental disabilities.
Doe Fund founder George McDonald announces his candidacy for Mayor of New York City on Thursday, January 10, 2013 at Grand Central Terminal. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)
Tributes poured in from across the city from people who worked hand-in-hand with McDonald or were just touched by his generosity.
“George was always a trusted colleague, adviser and, most of all, friend,” Gov. Cuomo said in a statement. “We judge a life well lived by the consequence of action. George made New York State a better state and improved life for literally thousands. He made a real difference. Today the family of New York joins with Harriet and the entire Doe Fund family in mourning this tremendous loss.”
“Hearts are heavy today with the passing of our dear friend and mentor George McDonald,” tweeted Maria Cuomo Cole, a producer of social impact films, and Gov. Cuomo’s sister. “His lifetime of service to the homeless will forever inspire my commitment to dignified housing and opportunity for the most vulnerable among us. He is more than a hero.”
The woman for whom the The Doe Fund was named was wearing a scarf McDonald gifted her when she died, and he began anonymously paying for the funerals of homeless people until the end of his own life, a company representative said.
“Homelessness in New York City will always be with us,” McDonald said in 2017. “We are the most generous city on the planet. And we believe that every person who comes here, no matter where they are from, should not sleep on the street.”
Advertisement
McDonald died at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. He’s survived by his wife, four children and several grandchildren.
JOHN ANNESE
New York Daily News