John McDonald

John McDonald was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1906, but his efforts for the last four decades tend to bring him here, to the cradle of American fly fishing.  As author of several books and associate editor of Fortune magazine, John brought much to anglers everywhere, through insight on timeless angling art as well as keen interest in the history of our sport and its legends.  One of John’s contributions that is of major interest to the Catskill Fly Fishing Center was that of bringing the legend and the writings of Theodore Gordon out of obscurity and back into perspective, deeming Gordon as the father of modern American fly fishing.  John McDonald’s sympathies parallel our own as we now strive to preserve our fly fishing heritage and its Catskill origins and heroes.