Obituary: Past President John GL McDonough 1948-2021

John McDonough was born in Armagh into a sporting family. At school he played both hockey and cricket and continued his sporting career when he went up to Queen’s University in 1967, playing both hockey and cricket and winning an Irish Senior Cup hockey medal in 1972. After qualifying in Dentistry he and Margaret were married and spent a number of years in South Africa before returning to Northern Ireland and establishing their dental practice in Lisburn.
John joined the Rotary Club of Lisburn in 1996. He participated enthusiastically in all of the Club’s activities, particularly the social events. He was a stalwart of the cookery class which ran for many years and also the Rotary golf society. He was elected President of the Club in 2003-04.
Over quite a few years John organised many highly successful golf fundraisers for Rotary charities at Dunmurry Golf Club, drawing participants from his wide range of sporting and other contacts to enjoy the course and supporting various charities including, more recently, Masicorp, an educational and skills training charity in South Africa.
John was the first rotarian in the Club to see that a website was the way forward for clubs in the 21st century as a means of communicating information and highlighting the various ways in which Rotary contributed to society. In 2005, he enlisted his son Andrew to develop a website and updated it regularly until 2020 when current information was put up on Facebook. John was awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship in 2014 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the ideals and principles of Rotary in general and to this club in particular and he was the embodiment of all that a great Rotarian should be.
His absence is sorely missed by all of us who were privileged to call him our friend.