John Donald (rdnewsNOW/Troy Gillard)

By Troy Gillard and Josh Hall

philanthropy honoured

John Donald named Rotary Citizen of the Year

May 24, 2019 | 8:32 PM

A man familiar to many in and around Red Deer is now the fourth member of his family to be honoured as the Rotary Citizen of the Year.

John Donald received the award for 2019 at a celebration gala Friday night at the Cambridge Inn and Suites.

“Things like this never happen by themselves,” he said, humbly. “It’s all the wonderful people I’ve had the opportunity to work with on all the different campaigns and all the boards I’ve worked on.

“I think if you surround yourself with enough great people, you end up looking pretty good yourself. I think that’s been my success, for sure.”

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His father, Jack Donald received the Citizen of the Year award in 2002 followed by his mother, Joan, two years later. John’s sister, Kathy Lacey received the honour in 2011.

“My father is obviously a very good businessman, and I’d have to say probably over my years in business that I’ve never met a better businessman. But my mother is the philanthropic one. From a very young age we learned to give back,” John recalled.

“If you do business in a community, if you’re part of a community, you give back to that community. That message was loud and clear and (is) something we’ve done our whole lives.”

His list of philanthropic endeavours over the years is lengthy, but Donald says he’s most proud of the work he’s done to help improve local healthcare.

“For the last 10 years of my life, I’ve been very engaged in healthcare. I chaired the hospital foundation board for five years, and am back on the board again now.

“I think that healthcare in central Alberta is something that we’ve been shorted, as central Albertans, and is something that needs to be fixed. So you get busy and you try to fix it, and that’s what we’re doing right now.”

For 37 years, Donald owned John Deere dealerships in Red Deer and throughout southern Alberta. He sold his stake in December and is now helping manage 42 commercial properties he co-owns with his father.

“Enjoying it,” he admitted, “because it’s four hours a day and I actually have some time.”

John shares a good portion of that time with his wife Joan, two children and three grandchildren.