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When you consider the dates that most major cities were founded, Miami arrived late on the scene, becoming incorporated in 1896 when fewer than 1,000 settlers called the area home.
To be considered a Miami pioneer means your family here only stretches back a few generations. Members of the McDonald family of Palmetto Bay unquestionably qualify as pioneers.
In 1927, a young attorney named David C. McDonald came to Miami and opened a one-man law firm. In 1929, just at the start of the Great Depression, McDonald’s namesake was born, called Dave. The family soon moved into a new house in Coral Gables and Dave enjoyed fishing and catching crawfish in Biscayne Bay.
After graduating from Ponce de Leon High School, the naturally gifted athlete was awarded a football scholarship to the University of Miami, where he earned a law degree.
In 1955, after two years as an officer in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Office, Dave returned to Miami and joined his father in the newly renamed firm of McDonald & McDonald. While practicing law with his father, Dave also found time to play semi-professional baseball (he had been recruited by the St. Louis Cardinals while still in college, but he turned the team down to finish law school).
In 1959, Dave purchased a two-acre, heavily wooded home site adjacent to the Deering Estate where still lives today. The McDonald clan included his wife Patsy Mae Gerald McDonald, sons David M. and Patrick, and daughter Valerie. Always an active outdoorsman, Dave hunted quail in nearby fields in the mornings before going to work. His children explored the sloughs and woods of the neighborhood, finding prehistoric pottery shards left by the Tequesta Indians.
One day, son Patrick found a young raccoon which had been abandoned by its mother. The family nursed the young mammal into adulthood and many humorous stories are told still by the family about “Hoover” the raccoon.
A favorite is the time Patsy found some of her good jewelry in the bottom of a toilet bowl, where Hoover had washed and discarded it (raccoons are very fastidious).
In addition to the McDonald family, the homestead was the domicile of wild boars, otters, snakes, raccoons and possums. As recently as a two years ago, Dave was attacked and bitten by a rabid otter on his front porch. Although the otter didn’t survive the ordeal, McDonald received a series of rabies shots and has since fully recovered.
The family practice of McDonald & McDonald started out as a general legal services firm and grew to specialize in insurance defense and aviation law. Today the firm also provides adoption and family law, contracts, collections matters, general civil litigation, real estate, wills and probate. Dave’s sons, David M. and Patrick, joined the firm in 1990 and 2001, respectively, creating a legacy of three generations of McDonald attorneys.
Dave McDonald is 92 years old and retired, although he remains active through yard work and playing fetch with his loyal companion, a hunting dog named Jake. He is an experienced boat operator and a licensed pilot holding a commercial pilot certificate with single and multi-engine ratings.
Until the pandemic, Dave was active as an advisor to the University of Miami’s Iron Arrow Honor Society. He is a recipient of the Bowman Foster Ashe Award, Iron Arrow’s highest honor recognizing dedicated service to the University of Miami. Only 15 people have received the award in the school’s history.
“Dave is an original pioneer and an all-around good guy,” said neighbor Dick Mixson. “He’s one of a kind and I am fortunate to call him my friend.”
