Duke Flags Lowered: Eugene McDonald, Founder of DUMAC, Dies
Eugene John McDonald (“Gene”), an adviser to three Duke University presidents and the founding director of the Duke University Management Company (DUMAC), died Friday at the age of 88. Following a brief spell of declining health, he died peacefully in his Chapel Hill home surrounded by his family.
McDonald joined Duke University in 1977 as University Counsel and Vice President for Government Relations while also teaching at Duke Law School from 1978 to 1986. He continued as Duke's top legal officer while additionally being named Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration in 1985. In 1990, he was selected as Founding President and CEO of the newly formed Duke University Management Company to manage and grow the university endowment and investments.
When he retired from Duke in 2000, university officials praised him for being an important architect in building DUMAC and in assisting the university’s growth into a leading research university.
“Gene McDonald made Duke financially,” said Tallman Trask III, executive vice president. “He and others had the idea to found DUMAC, and nobody could have made better investment decisions than he and his team made. For the decade he ran it, we had the best returns of any university.”
When DUMAC was formed, the university endowment was $750 million. It is now around $8 billion.
More than an investment manager, McDonald also was an important adviser to university leaders on a range of issues. At McDonald’s retirement in 2000, then-president Nannerl O. Keohane praised him for his leadership.
""The success of Duke's investment strategies under Gene's leadership reflects his vision, as well as his managerial and financial acumen,” Keohane said. “We have been very fortunate to have had his commitment as DUMAC's founding president, and look forward to continuing to benefit from his wise counsel for years to come."
After his retirement from Duke, McDonald was named principal and chief investment officer at the newly formed Quellos Private Capital in 2001. He continued to lead the Quellos private equity fund-of-funds team following its acquisition by BlackRock in 2007.
Born on July 14, 1932, in Hector, Minn. McDonald endured painful loss at a young age, losing his father at the age of eight and his older brother Dale at the age of 12 in World War ll. He took his first job at age 10, working for the King Oscar Sardine Company in Minneapolis, and remained fully engaged in work activities until his final retirement at the age of 86.
His academic curiosity earned him a scholarship to the University of San Francisco, where he graduated at the top of his class with a bachelor's degree in 1954. He earned his Juris Doctor with graduation honors from the University of San Francisco Law School in 1957, and a Master of Laws degree in international law and trade from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served on the law faculty for three years before joining the San Francisco firm Brobeck, Phleger & Harrison. He also attended the Advanced Management program at Harvard Graduate School of Business.
McDonald was an accomplished fly fisherman, golfer and an oenophile. He loved learning, books, traveling, sports (especially Duke Basketball), fine cuisine and, above all, his family.
McDonald married his wife Barbara in 1958. He is survived by sons Michael (Wei), Mark (Mary), Matthew (Gigi) and Martin (Sara), daughters Zara and Molly, and five remarkable and loving grandchildren, Tucker (Gina), Tyler, Matthew, Morgan and Keera.
A Mass of Christian burial will be offered at 11 a.m on Thursday, September 3, 2020, at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church with Father Hugh Macsherry, O.F.M., presiding. Interment will be in St. Matthew’s Catholic Cemetery in Durham, NC on a date yet to be established. A memorial honoring Gene’s life and legacy will also be held at a later date.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in Gene McDonald's memory may be made to:
Duke Cancer Institute
300 W. Morgan St., Suite 1200, Durham, NC 27701
Phone (919) 385-3129