The couple’s daughter, Lucy MacGillis, is an artist in the Umbria region of Italy. Ingrid taught high school English and German for many years. They married in 1974 and settled in Pittsfield, buying a house at the edge of the community. One day he led an outreach event and Ingrid Scheitweiler, who lived in Germany, was in the audience. Drafted into the Army after graduating in 1968, he was stationed in Germany and learned the language. He attended Yale University, fell in love with journalism, and edited the student paper. MacGillis became academically accomplished and was one of the first Presidential Scholars. His father, Hugh MacGillis, was a regional manager for the Veterans Administration whose work took the family to Whitefish Bay, Wis., and then to West Hartford. The fourth of six siblings, Donald MacGillis was born on the South Side of Chicago in 1946. MacGillis’s closest friend, recalled that “we have joked for many years now that he has been rendered obsolete by the Internet. It was so impressive to see his mind work.” He would remember it eight weeks later and connect dots. “Every day he read the entire Berkshire Eagle. MacGillis hired at the Eagle was Tad Ames, who later was president of the Berkshire Natural Resources Council. “Happily, he also knew everything about German beer and American baseball, so he was exceptional company as well.”Īmong those Mr. “He seemed adult, and timeless,” she added. So when I finally met him, I was astounded that this wise, wry, understated person was only 25! (I was 24),” Donovan, a former Globe executive editor, wrote in an e-mail. “I first knew MacGillis, as everyone called him, entirely over the phone. MacGillis wrote editorials, was on the editorial board, and was an editor on the national desk until retiring in 2012.Īt every step he left a lasting impression, such as when he worked in the Eagle’s Great Barrington bureau and Helen Donovan was his editor in the Pittsfield offices. Afterward, he joined the Berkshire Eagle and rose to become the top editor and the editorial page editor before he and the newspaper parted ways in 1995 when it was sold to MediaNews Group. He was briefly a reporter for the Hartford Courant in Connecticut before a stint in the Army. MacGillis’s resume was as compact as his essays. He was completely straightforward, honest, sincere, and right-minded,” added Benjamin, who also formerly was the US State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state. “I don’t know anyone in my life who had less pretense than Don MacGillis. MacGillis writing editorials before going on to write speeches for then-president Bill Clinton. “He had an extraordinary gift for friendship and always was a deeply, deeply admirable person,” said Daniel Benjamin, who worked for Mr. His talent for conversation equaled his precision on the page. MacGillis’s talent and intellect, even though politically they often didn’t agree. “He wrote beautifully, and as the daughter of a Catholic school teacher, that’s something you come to admire,” said Jane Swift, a former acting Massachusetts governor who long respected Mr.
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