A well-known local priest has died. Reverend Hugh Donald MacDonald, known to many as “Father Hughie D” died on New Year’s Eve. He was 95.
Much of MacDonald’s ministry was in the Diocese of Antigonish, serving in parishes in Iona, Sydney, Larry’s River, Pictou, Port Hawkesbury, Arichat, River Bourgeois and Creignish. He retired from active ministry on leaving Creignish in 2018.
MacDonald was also a founding member of the Cape Breton Addiction Centre in Sydney and served on the board many years. He was also a board member of Recovery House in Antigonish and the Nova Scotia Drug Dependency Board. He also served on the Board of Directors of CJFX, the St. FX Board of Governors, and on the boards of St. Martha’s and Strait Richmond Hospitals.
He also honoured as a recipient of the Governor General’s Caring Canadian Award in 1996 and the Queen Elizabeth 2 Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012.