— Ch. 1 · Early Life And Medical Career —
Larry McDonald.
~7 min read · Ch. 1 of 6
Lawrence Patton McDonald was born on the 1st of April 1935 in Atlanta, Georgia. He grew up in DeKalb County within the eastern part of that city. General George S. Patton stood as a distant relative to the young boy. McDonald attended several private and parochial schools before entering a non-denominational high school. He spent two years there before graduating in 1951. His academic path led him to Davidson College from 1951 until 1953 where he studied history. He entered Emory University School of Medicine at age 17. Graduation came in 1957 after his medical studies concluded. An internship followed at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He trained further as a urologist under Reed M. Nesbit at the University of Michigan Hospital. Completion arrived in 1966 when he returned to Atlanta. He began practice alongside his father at the McDonald Urology Clinic. From 1959 to 1961 he served as a flight surgeon stationed at Keflavík naval base in Iceland. He married an Icelandic national named Anna Tryggvadottir during this time. Three children resulted from their union: Tryggvi Paul, Callie Grace, and Mary Elizabeth. While in Iceland he asserted to his commanding officer that the U.S. Embassy in Reykjavik was doing things advantageous to communists. He was told he did not understand the big picture.
Political Ascension And Ideology
McDonald joined the anti-communist John Birch Society in 1966 or 1967. He hosted thousands of people in his living room for Bircher-inspired lectures and documentaries according to his first wife. His preoccupation with politics led to a divorce. He became known as an anti-abortion activist. He made one unsuccessful run for Congress in 1972 before being elected in 1974. In 1975 he married Kathryn Jackson whom he met while giving a speech in California. He served on the Georgia State Medical Education Board and chaired it from 1969 until 1974. McDonald ran for Congress against incumbent John W. Davis in the Democratic primary in 1974. He opposed mandatory federal school integration programs. He criticized Davis for voting in favor of school busing. He attacked Davis for receiving political donations from out-of-state groups which favored busing. McDonald won the primary election in an upset. He was elected in November 1974 to the 94th United States Congress. He represented Georgia's 7th congressional district which included most of Atlanta's northwestern suburbs including Marietta. Opposition to school busing was especially high there. During the general election J. Quincy Collins Jr. nearly defeated him despite poor Republican performance nationally that year due to Watergate effects. McDonald considered himself a traditional Democrat cut from the cloth of Jefferson and Jackson. One scoring method published in the American Journal of Political Science named him the second most conservative member of either chamber between 1937 and 2002. Ron Paul stood as his closest confidant in Congress.