Federal judge McDonald dies

YAKIMA – U.S. District Judge Alan McDonald has died at age 79.

McDonald, who had been on senior status the past 11 years, died Thursday at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

He battled recent health problems and collapsed earlier this week while having lunch at a restaurant.

McDonald became the first Yakima attorney to serve on the federal bench in 74 years when he was appointed to a newly created third judgeship in the Eastern District of Washington in 1985.

Senior U.S. District Judge Justin Quackenbush, of Spokane, said he and McDonald often played golf together.

“Besides serving with him, we were close personal friends and golfing buddies. We solved more problems on the golf course than in the courtroom,” Quackenbush said during a telephone interview. He said McDonald was very serious about the law.

“He was a judge’s judge,” Quackenbush said. “He truly believed in the rule of law. He could decide cases based on the facts and the law, not personal consequences.”

Still, McDonald’s time on the bench included controversy.

He ultimately recused himself from the Hanford downwinder case he had handled for 13 years. Plaintiffs, who claimed their health had been damaged by radioactive releases from the plutonium production site in the early 1950s, said his ownership of land near the Hanford nuclear reservation damaged his ability to decide the case.

McDonald also was reprimanded by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1990 for notes he passed to a clerk that were determined to create an appearance of bias and violated judicial conduct rules.

Raised in nearby Harrah, he was the son of Angus McDonald, a longtime Yakima County commissioner. The younger McDonald attended Whitman College and the University of Washington.

McDonald is survived by his wife, a brother, three daughters and three grandchildren.