In Memoriam: W. Wesley McDonald
09/22/2014
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W. Wesley McDonald, who died of a shockingly fast-moving tumor on September 9 at the early age of 67, was a gentleman and a scholar and a friend of VDARE.com—he wrote Russell Kirk on Immigration, drawing on his magnum opus Russell Kirk and the Age of Ideology, for us in 2004—after the $PLC had named us a "Hate Group" and scared off so many Establishment Right types. (For his Elizabethtown College colleague Paul Gottfried's response to Wes,  see here).

But I find Wes' passing deeply affecting for another, personal reason: in 2005, after speaking on "Immigration and America" to the Philadelphia Society, I walked over to introduce myself to a young woman I had seen the audience and inadvertently interrupted an interview she was recording with Wes on Kirk for a college paper she was writing. As a result, the first words I exchanged with my future wife are immortalized on tape. We all laughed about it at this year's Philadelphia Society meeting just a few short months ago. Our deepest condolences to his loved ones.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="182"] W. Wesley McDonald[/caption]

Two memorial services are being held, one at Elizabethtown College and one in Maryland.

At Elizabethtown, the memorial service will be at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, September 30 in Leffler Chapel followed by a reception in the Chapel Foyer.

The Maryland memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, October 4, at Morgan Chapel United Methodist Church, 6750 Woodbine Road, Woodbine, Maryland 21797.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the W. Wesley McDonald Memorial Scholarship Fund, Elizabethtown College, Office of Development, One Alpha Drive, Elizabethtown, PA 17022.

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