The author was born Keith James McDonald in June 1941 in Melbourne, the capital city of the Australian State of Victoria. He grew up on farms and attended boarding schools, then Sydney University, graduating in 1962 with a double major in Mathematics and Physics. In his teens he acquired the name “Tim”, hence “K.J. Timothy McDonald.”
After university he taught in three different Catholic high schools for the following 17 years, the last eight as deputy headmaster for two years and then, for six years, headmaster, that boys' only school becoming a coeducational institution with an enrolment of over 1600 students on four campuses.
In 1979, following securing Commonwealth funding to establish a school for urban-based Aboriginal children, he began a career in W. A. State Government, moving from curriculum development in the Technical Education System (TAFE) to management development in the Public Service Board. Over the next five years he successively became the Executive Director of the Public Service Board, then the Health Department and finally back to TAFE, all Government initiated transfers. In the early 80’s he was awarded a Master’s Degree in Education and a Graduate Diploma in Computing from Perth universities. In 1989 he began a five year stint as the founding CEO of what became the largest private hospital system in Australia, a Catholic system of 10 hospitals. He moved to the USA in 1995 for family reasons and followed a health-care based career in New Jersey for the next eight years. His “retirement party” in 2003 was acceptance into the Ph.D. mathematics program on the Rutgers University, Newark campus, graduating in 2008 at the age of 67. He taught mathematics at Rutgers for the next five years and coordinated all the lower level math courses. In 2013 he and his wife retired to Florida and he taught part-time at a College on the east coast until COVID-19 restrictions ended that career. He continues to volunteer as a math tutor in the local jail during the periods it is open to the volunteers. He also conducts a monthly Catholic communion service when it is allowed, again a pandemic restraint.
He has two children, four grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
Hopefully this brief biography explains the range of issues covered in the books and articles he has written. They are presented free of charge to any interested reader, his life has been very full, he is happy to share some of its fruits with others. Click on any of the underlined headings in the next column labelled “Books” to access a .pdf manuscript.
The author may be contacted on kjtmcdon@gmail.com