Dr. Ron McDonald is a Quaker and retired pastoral counselor in Memphis, Tennessee. He is also professor emeritus at Memphis Theological Seminary. He was born in 1951 and raised in Arkansas, the second of seven sons of a United Methodist minister and his wife, Charles and Lois McDonald.
Ron was educated at Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas, Union Theological Seminary in New York City, Saint Paul School of Theology in Kansas City, Missouri, and the Training Institute for Counseling and Therapy of the Foundation for Religion and Mental Health in Briarcliff Manor, New York.
He began his ministerial career as Campus Minister at Western Connecticut State University. He and his family moved to Memphis in 1985 where he began working full time as a pastoral counselor.
He is a Diplomate in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and Tennessee Licensed Clinical Pastoral Therapist, and author of Building the Therapeutic Sanctuary: The Fundamentals of Psychotherapy – A Pastoral Counseling Perspective (1stBooks Library, 2000), and Home Again: A Pilgrimage of Father and Son (1stBooks Library, 2002), The Spirituality of Community Life: When We Come ‘Round Right (Haworth Press, Binghamton, NY, 2006), and
He was an elected leader of the American Association of Pastoral Counselors and past President of the Tennessee Association of Pastoral Therapists, a teacher in pastoral counseling at Memphis Theological Seminary, a parent educator, taught philosophy at Northwest Mississippi Community College, and was a speaker and preacher in churches and other organizations.
Ron became a Quaker in 1979 and has thrice been presiding Clerk of the Memphis Friends Meeting. He also served as a Friends Journal magazine board member and clerk of the Development Committee.
Additionally, he is a folksinger and storyteller, performing with his guitar and hammer dulcimer. He has released two albums, on CD and streaming services. For a year he was a daily children’s television show host of “The Rickety Bridge” in Danbury, CT. An avid dancer and teacher of waltz and Zydeco, he was the coordinator of the annual Memfest Dance Festival from 2002-2011. He is an active outdoors person, and is married to Susan Penn, a librarian. Together they have two grown sons.
To contact Dr. McDonald, please send him an email from his contact page.