Obituaries

Sanford Noyes "Sandy" McDonnell

Photo of Sanford Noyes "Sandy" McDonnell
Sanford Noyes "Sandy" McDonnell died peacefully at home on Monday, 19 March, 2012 surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 12th, 1922, and is the nephew of McDonnell Aircraft founder James S. McDonnell. He earned bachelor's degrees in economics from Princeton University in 1945 and mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado in 1948, and a master's degree in applied mechanics in 1954 from Washington University in St. Louis. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, spending two years on the Manhattan Project in Los Alamos, New Mexico. He married his wife Priscilla Robb McDonnell in 1946 and they had a daughter Robbin in 1948 and son Randy in 1951. In 1948, he joined McDonnell Aircraft Company (later to become McDonnell Douglas) in St. Louis, Mo. He was CEO and Chairman of McDonnell Douglas from 1972 to 1988. During his tenure as chairman of McDonnell Douglas, he helped focus national attention on the importance of ethics in all aspects of life. Upon retiring, Sandy picked character education (teaching students ethical and performance character) in schools K-12 as his retirement career. He is Chairman of CHARACTERplus , a character education program in local schools effecting 350,000 students which he helped organize in 1988. CHARACTERplus is the leading character education program in the nation and has been found to dramatically improve academic performance in participating schools. In addition, he is Chairman Emeritus of the Character Education Partnership, Inc. in Washington, D.C., a national organization dedicated to developing moral character and civic virtues in our young people, which he helped organize in 1993. In addition to his work in character education, Sandy has been active in numerous other organizations through the years. Beginning in 1965, he became active in Boys Scouts of America and later served as the national president from 1984-1986. He also served on the board of directors of the United Way of Greater St. Louis and as Chairman raised a record amount of money. Sandy is a fellow of the American Insitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and past Chairman of the board of governors of the Aerospace Industries Association. In 1984 he was named St. Louis Man of the Year, becoming the first son to follow his father in receiving the prestigious award. He is survived by his loving wife, Priscilla Robb McDonnell, son, William Randall (Randy) McDonnell (wife-Veronica McDonnell), daughter, Robbin McDonnell MacVittie (husband-Dr. Paul MacVittie), sister, Cherry McDonnell Lawrence, and grandson, U.S. Air Force Captain William Sanford MacVittie. A memorial service will be held at Ladue Chapel Presbyterian Church at 4p.m. on Wednesday the 28th of March. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to CharacterPlus, the organization that Sandy founded in 1988. The address is CharacterPlus, 1460 Craig Road, St. Louis, Mo. 63146. The Lupton Funeral Chapel, 7233 Delmar Blvd., St. Louis, Mo. 314-721-1870.

Published March 23, 2012

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