Memorial today for Don Mackie, Mill Creek owner

Donald J. Mackie, Jr., of Salado, passed away Saturday morning Sept 22, at a Houston hospital, after a heroic fight against cancer. A memorial servece will be half on the 7th Fairway of Mill Creek Country Club at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, Sept. 26.

Don was born in Ashland, Wisconsin July 29, 1944, to Mary Berglund. Mackie and Donald J. Machie, Sr. He spent his early years in northern Wisconsin before moving to Madison in 1956, where he graduated from West High School Following high school he enlisted in the Wisconsin National Guard, then graduated from Army Officer’s Candidate School. He was commissioned in 1964, and served until 1969, during which time he was called to active service several times, including during the Cuban Missile Crisis, during this time he also earned a BBA in the Urban Land Economics from the University of Wisconsin.

After graduation for several large development companies. He was a project manager with Bliss and Laughflin Industries in Oakbrook, Illinois where he developed industrial parks and marketed a golf course community in South Florida. He moved to Houston in 1971 to take a position as project manager with Gerald H Hines Interests. He subsequently became president of the residential subsidiary of Hines Interests, a position he held until he left the company in 1979 to pursue independent development projects.

Don was an entrepreneur at heart, and in 1979, he, along with three other partners, bought Mill Creek Gold and Country Club. It originally was a 9-hole development, which he quickly changed by hiring his friend, Robert Trent Jones Jr., to redesign and expand the golf course. As the managing partner, he was in charge of its growth and development. Under his tenure the original 9-hole course was expanded into a Robert Trent Jones Jr. 27-hole golf course, along with the accompanying growth and development of the Mill Creek residential community and goes accommodations.

During this period he also managed several other properties in Round Rock, and developed some properties in Waco, Austin, and Gatesville.

In addition to his business activities he was also very involved in the community. At the time of his death, Don was President and Director of the Salado Water Supply Corporation, a Founding Director of the TexasChapter of the National Golf Course Owners Association, President of the Clearwater Underground Water Conservation District of Bell County; as well as a member of the King’s Daughter’s Advisory Board, the central Texas Museum Board of Directions, the Salado Lions Club, and the Salado Chamber of Commerce. In Gatesville, he served as President of the Gatesville Chamber of Commerce, was a member of the Coryell County Tax Appraisal Board and.a member of the First Presbyterian Church.

He was also very active in his professional organization, The Urban Land Institue, where he was a member of the executeve group of the Industrial and Office Park Council, the Residential and Recreation Councils.

Don married Sara Nelle Lowrey of Gatesville in 1974. They lived in Houston, and Gatesville before moving to Salado in 1983.

Survivors include his wife, Sara Nelle Lowrey; daughter Anna Kate; and son Douglas, all of Salado. Also, his sister, Kate Mackie, of Austin and his mother in law, Mrs. O.W. Lowrey, of Gatesville, as well as by many wonderful autns, uncles, cousins, and friends.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Donald J. Mackie, Sr., his grandparents, and by his father-in-law and best friend, Dr. O.W. Lowrey.
Memorials may be made to the Coryell Memorial Hospital, the Edna Gladney Center in Ft. Worth, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, or to a charity of your choice.

Visitation was at the Gatesville Funeral Home in Sept. 25, in Gatesville and will be at the Prebysterian Church of Salado 9:30-11 a.m. Sept. 26, precedeng the service in Salado at Mill Creek Country Club.