Princeton Class of 1966

John M. McDonough (1944-2026)

John McDonough died on May 18, 2026.

John graduated from New Trier High, in Winnetka, Illinois, where he was active in varsity football, the student council executive board, honor society, and Latin Club.

At Princeton, he was a Woodrow Wilson School major, belonged to Cap and Gown, was chairman of the Orange Key Intercollegiate Committee, president of the Orange Key Society, vice chairman of the Campus Fund Drive, on the board of the Memorial Fund Drive, and active on numerous other committees. His roommates included Mike Barrett, Buce Leslie, Bill Leahy, Frank Langhammer, Bill Moyse, Bob Rawson, Rex Brown, and Bill Pressley. He was awarded the Detweiler Prize at graduation.

After Princeton, he earned his law degree at Yale, then served in the Army Reserves JAG Corps and joined Sidley & Austin (now Sidley) in Chicago, where he had a long career as partner concentrating in trust and estates and nonprofit law. He served for 27 years as general counsel of the Chicago Community Trust and was active in numerous community organizations.

John was committed to Princeton and to our Class, having served on the Committee to Nominate Alumni Trustees, earned the Princeton Club of Chicago Award for Distinguished Community Service, and served terms as Class vice president and interim secretary.

He loved to travel and pursued that interest until the end, even though confined to a wheelchair for many years.

John leaves wife Susan Moran, son John, and daughter, Anne ’18, to all of whom the Class extends its heartfelt condolences.

Nassau Herald

Classmate Tributes and Memories

John Lumpkin:

I was deeply saddened to learn of John’s passing right before our 60^th Reunion. He and I met early in our freshman year and soon became good buddies. John was one of the kindest individuals I have ever known. ‘Service above self’ epitomized much of his extracurricular focus throughout our years as undergraduates. Two examples were his leadership in the Campus Fund Drive, organized and staffed entirely by undergraduates and Orange Key. As many of you may remember, this latter organization-John was its President our senior year-was Princeton’s major service organization. I served as a Keyceptor under his leadership. In all the years I knew him, I never heard him utter a cross word. John was not only a gentleman, but he was also a gentle man. Godspeed, my dear classmate.’

Dave Stewart:

Thanks for sending, Jon. I had reached out to John right after returning from Reunions - hoping to rekindle our connection after many years - and now understand why there was no response. John was a big man in many ways - intellect, warmth of character, concern for others - a leader with a steady eye on doing the right thing, always wishing the best for others. I valued our friendship and always learned from him. Wish we had remained closer over the ensuing decades. He'd have enjoyed the 60th.

Bob Rawson:

Many are my reasons to both mourn and celebrate the life of John McDonough. He was one of the first classmates I encountered in the fall of 1962 as a naive freshman seeking to find my way. A sincere and lasting friendship followed that early meeting,

Liberal-arts bound but needing to satisfy a math/science distribution requirement while avoiding stress, I enrolled in Psychology 203-4 that included behavioral lab work in the old Armory (since torn down). For the first lab as I marched in the right direction, along side me appeared a chap who appeared similarly motivated. It was John. We covered the twenty-minute march with small talk that established we were both mid - westerners from public high schools with similar interests.

We became lab partners and shared the joys of behavioral psychology through our joint efforts to train a white rat to respond to stimuli. Characteristically cheerful, John made our science experience more than tolerable.

With this foundation, John and I shared many interests and activities. As WWS majors, we shared courses, JP and thesis concerns, comprehensive exams - the whole Princeton academic experience. We were club mates at Cap. We were roommates in the 5th entry of Blair in our junior and senior years. We shared many Princeton extracurricular pursuits. Not surprisingly, we both went on to law school and the practice of law.

Throughout, John applied a remarkable mind and broad interests. For example, we both took Roman Law as a logical pre-law course, and John effortlessly memorized obscure legal passages that he could recite years later. He loved Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” and read it several times, and could easily recount plot twists and turns.

For family and friends, he conceived and led matchless adventures. For example, river trips through the Grand Canyon and the middle fork of the Salmon and a bicycle trip in Vermont.

Though always busy with law practice and Princeton and Chicago community leadership responsibilities, he was above-all devoted to his family - Susan, son John and daughter Annie. They have been his greatest pride and joy.

In all his engagements and endeavors, John’s character shone through: integrity, leadership quality coupled with devotion to team effort and credit, loyalty to people and principles. In sum, he was a good person, a nice guy, and consequently, pleasurable company. I am fortunate to have shared some of his life. His was a life to celebrate. Like so many others he befriended, I will miss him.

Bill Leahy:

John and I have been friends since first year at New Trier high school. In the spring of that year, I sat with John consoling him over the unexpected death of his father. The same memories returned on Monday May 18th when Susan Moran (John's wife) and I talked. Their daughter, Annie had received her degree that afternoon at Yale law School (John's alma mater) and within hours John had passed on. The mysteries of birth and death continue to confound us all.

Five decades of friendship are difficult to summarize. At its essence John had an enormous curiosity about people, history, an openness and lack of pretention, a willingness to tackle anything, but golf!, curious and easy and open manner, touched by a note of Anglophilic grace. He was extraordinarily social, dated the "best" gals in high school, and organized dances our freshman year at Princeton to encourage social interactions.

In high school, he displayed perfect penmanship, played the role of Julius Ceasar to perfection. Through the stages of life; education, career development, family life, travel and forays into other ventures, John remained a constant force for his friends. His loyalty is well known (so loyal that he typed Susan's economic thesis at Oxford, prepared all her meals during law school and some have thought he took the Bar exam for her!) He set a high bar for most men: flowers often for his wife, meals prepared from scratch etc.

His love of Chicago and England are well known. He lived and practiced Estate Planning at Sidley, Austin in Chicago his entire career. He would often travel to England to refresh his spirit. He had profound influences upon his son, John and daughter, Annie. He taught them to think ahead, reach out for unique opportunities, to focus upon academic excellence and to use their gifts for others. He remained loyal to '66 and convened with Tom Allison and other 66ers in the Chicago '66 lunch group.

John by example, taught me civility, proper dressing, and social graces and attempted to convert me to become an Anglophile( difficult for Irish).

Tom Allison:

John McDonough and I go back many years together, through high school, college, and law school!

One of John’s most endearing qualities is that he was a royalist through and through. He had a prodigious memory for all things royal. When swimming, he would keep track of the laps he had swum by reciting the names of the kings and queens of England. John knew every date connected to royalty, important or not. He knew the stately homes so well, including the names of the decorators, you might think he had lived there.

The ties between John’s family and ours go way back. Sherry and I met John‘s fiancé, Susan Moran, when she moved to Chicago from Washington, DC. I could say Susan and Sherry were joined at the hip through graduate school and dissertations, much as John and I were in college and law school. Sherry and I are blessed to be the godparents of Susan and John’s children, Johnny and Annie McDonough.

John was as proud of his family as it is possible to be. They traveled as a family to wonderful parts of the world, where finding the best food was a challenging family game.

John’s delight in life was palpable, from organizing the dance for his school graduations, to singing in the annual Christmas men’s choir or grilling in the lovely back garden of their Chicago home.

Undoubtedly John is the Social Director wherever he has gone.

Bruce Leslie:

Reunions began sadly for me. Minutes after signing in I learned of John’s passing. It didn’t seem possible – and to learn the sad news so near to where we met 64 years earlier enhanced its poignancy.

Four of us (Michael Barrett, Tom Hughey, John, and myself) who had requested non-smoking roommates from public high schools were brought together in 10 Patton Hall. Incongruously my clearest memory of organizing our habitat was of John sewing a chair’s slipcover. Largely led by John, we soon had a room worthy of visitors, though those of the female variety were few and far between. But soon future leaders of ’66 came through our abode, drawn by John’s ebullient personality.

Although we shared public high school origins, John was so much more sophisticated than I was. I was awed by his knowledge of art history – resulting in John becoming my only acquaintance to receive a 1+ in any subject. I am so grateful he gently nudged open a window for me that would open widely at Princeton.

And the thought that his parents had been guests at Hearst Castle blew my mind!

We remained friends bonded by that formative freshman year. I was always comforted by his calm confidence and maturity.

Sandy Martin:

John was upstairs and I was down, but we were together quite a bit in the entry or at Cap and Gown as we both loved to talk about history, politics and current events. John was one of the kindest, gentlest, most thoughtful people I have known. When I had an office at the American Embassy in Bangkok during 1969-1972, with a duty station upcountry, John managed to find my FPO address (the University?) and contact me to say he was coming through Bangkok. I managed to get leave for part of the period he was there and John stayed with me, my wife, Nancy (whom John knew well from our courtship junior year and our engagement throughout senior year), and our two year old son. Having been an Asian Studies major at Princeton, I was in heaven being stationed in Thailand, where I could explore and investigate the historical and archeological sites I had studied a few years before, and delve deeper into the religion, art and culture that had fascinated me at Princeton. John arrived full of the same interests to pursue, and I was delighted to have someone with whom to share my enthusiasm. We explored ancient religious and historical sites upcountry that I had found using maps hand drawn for me by a professor from Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. John's curiosity and his insightful questions as we wandered around those sites together (now long since reclaimed from the jungle and a regular stop on Lindblad and other tours) helped expand my own inquiries and knowledge. In the evenings, he seemed enchanted to be in the same household with a two-year old, and it was wonderful to witness the time he chose to spend with our son and the relationship that developed between them in a very short period of time. He no doubt made a wonderful father. John stayed on for some more days after I had to go back to work, and he and Nancy covered a lot more of the regular tourist stops in Bangkok. I have always cherished the memory of that time with John.

If you have photos, information, or memories that you wish to share, please send them to the '66 Memorial Team (66_MemorialTeam@tiger1966.org). We will add them to this page.