John William McDonald, the second of five children of William McDonald and Margaret Cecilia New, was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on April 29, 1910. His early education was in his home parish where he attended St. Thomas Grammar School and St. Thomas High School. Upon graduation from high school he attended Providence College, Providence, Rhode Island, for two years before entering the Dominican novitiate at St. Rose Priory, Springfield, Kentucky, in 1929, where he was given the religious name, James.

On August 16, 1930, he made his profession of vows and was sent to the Dominican House of Studies, River Forest, Illinois, to pursue philosophy. His first year of theological studies was spent at St. Joseph Priory, Somerset, Ohio, where he made his final profession

on August 16, 1933. In 1934 he was sent to the Dominican House of Studies, Washington, D.C., to continue his theological studies and was ordained a priest at St. Dominic Church by Archbishop Amleto Cicognani, the Apostolic Delegate, on June 10, 1936. He was immediately sent on for further theological studies at the Angelicum (University of St. Thomas Aquinas) in Rome, where he earned the S.T.D. degree in June 1938.

After completing his graduate studies his first assignment was to the faculty of the Dominican House of Studies, River Forest, Illinois, where he taught both philosophy and moral theology. During this time he also taught philosophy and theology at Rosary College, River Forest, Illinois, and for a time served as chaplain at the College (1941-43). He was active in giving lectures for the Thomist Association in Madison, Milwaukee, Kenosha and Appleton, Wisconsin, as well as in the Chicago area. Summers often found him teaching at other Catholic colleges - Dominican College, Racine, Wisconsin; St. Mary's College and St. Teresa's College, Winona, Minnesota. For nine years he served the Province as assistant Novice Master.

With the establishment by the Province of a House of Studies for Theology in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1951, Father McDonald joined the faculty there and continued to teach moral theology. During this time, he served the community as subprior of St. Rose of Lima Priory (1951- 57) and then as Master of Student Priests (1957-61). On November 29, 1960, the Dominican Order honored Father McDonald for his twenty-two years of teaching by conferring upon him the degree of Master of Sacred Theology. While assigned to Dubuque he was also a lecturer in theology for the Dominican Sisters, Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, and for the Presentation Sisters, Dubuque, Iowa. In 1964 he was asked to apply his theological training to a new ministry as editor of Cross and Crown, a journal of spirituality sponsored by the Province of St. Albert the Great. For the next thirteen years he carried on this work in Chicago, Illinois, first at Blackfriars House, then at St. Albert the Great Provincial House, and finally at St. Pius V Priory. For a time he continued to lecture in medical ethics at Oak Park Hospital School of Nursing, Oak Park, Illinois. In 1977 he handed over the editorship of the journal to another Dominican but continued to serve as business manager of Cross and Crown for another seven years.

In his later years Father McDonald suffered from Alzheimer's disease which required his move to the Province's assisted-living facility at St. Dominic-St. Thomas Priory, River Forest, Illinois. Because of the progression of the disease in 1991 Father McDonald moved to St. Patrick's Residence, Naperville, Illinois, where he was cared for by the Carmelite Sisters. On the afternoon of December 20, 1996, he died peacefully at St. Patrick's Residence. The funeral liturgy was celebrated at St. Pius V Church, Chicago, Illinois, on December 23, 1996, with subsequent burial in the Dominican Plot at All Saints Cemetery, Des Plaines, Illinois.