Everything I read about him seemed to suggest he would be both a task master and yet entertaining to engage. Any actual observations or anecdotes?
By the way, one son has a masters from Alabama so this Jayhawk says, Roll Tide.
One of the great mistakes in my life was not going for a PhD under McDonald at Alabama when I had the chance.
He was probably an easier teacher than most in undergraduate courses because he organized the material so well.
He like to tell the story of our tough soldiers of WWII who had grown up during the Great Depression and had served overseas, survived and come home to raise families. And the typical statement of the time was “My kid is going to have it better than I had it.” And McDonald said, “They proceeded to raise a generation of spoiled brats the likes of which this nation had never seen.”