Rusty’s legacy
The recent passing of Rusty Macdonald removed from our midst an individual with a different, and often highly humorous, view of life.
We’ll not soon forget his performance at an office Christmas party when he read a letter he had written to the Wheat Pool. This is how it started: “Dear Wheat: I have been working for you for 15 years now so I hope you don’t mind me calling you by your first name.”
When Rusty was taking arts at the University of Saskatchewan the students used to eat lunch in a cafeteria in a student residence on campus. One noon Rusty waited until everyone had started to eat and then yelled out:
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“There’s a mouse in my soup!”
Gallons of good soup were wasted and the supervising faculty members were not amused. Macdonald was told any more high jinks and he was out.
Rusty was a talented photographer and some of his picture books are still available at book stores. For many years his pictures were featured on Western Producer magazine covers. His masterpiece was a photo of a cloud rolling in from the west. He drove across the Prairies at high speed for kilometres to get the right angle on that cloud. He often used a whole roll of film to get one perfect picture.
He, Cliff Shaw of Yorkton, Larry Shaw of Regina, and former editor Tom Melville-Ness enjoyed their annual weekend photography trips.
As magazine editor, and later, executive editor, he encouraged use of articles by and about Prairie people and laid the groundwork for what later became Western People.
Our condolences to Alex, Marnie and families.
