At 90 years young in February, Charles “Chuck” McDonald questioned his latest purchase last year, a two-bedroom, two-bath, luxury boat spanning 48-feet anchored at the Point South Marina in Bay Point.  He’s owned about “thirty or forty other boats” prior to procuring this Riviera in December, he recalled.

“This is the biggest cruiser I’ve owned. At the time I bought it, I thought it was the dumbest thing to do. I don’t have a lot of time left.” 

He upgraded to the larger boat so his 88-year-young bride, Shirley, could have a larger galley. Apparently, having the dream kitchen at home is an idea that extends to being on the water as well. “Now I know this to be the best decision I’ve made in a long time,” he said. “It gives me something new to handle, something fresh.” Fellow boat captains and those working at Point South comment on how they admire his skills as he navigates the behemoth in and out of its dock space. Charles appreciates the boat’s technical features to include a garage that keeps a nine-foot dingy tucked away from visibility over the engine room in the back of the cruiser. “I like boats because I can work on them and tinker with them.”

Technical savvy is a theme in Chuck’s life, to include how he met Shirley 11 years ago. Both of them had former spouses who passed away. They connected with the technology of the Internet through online dating early in 2014 and married in 2015. Both of them had full lives and careers prior to meeting, she as a homemaker and then later as a real estate agent after raising a family. He worked in industry and raised three children, Christie, Tracy and Chad, and has six grandchildren. Shirley raised two children of her own, Mike and Kathy, and has five grandchildren. He grew up in Oklahoma City, and she grew up in Elba, AL.

Now they are enjoying the fruits of retirement together in Florida with date nights, boating and relaxing days in their Bay Point home. “We like going out to eat at the Grand Marlin and Captain Andersons.”

Leading up to these golden years, Charles studied for and applied his mechanical engineering and leadership expertise to the ways of production efficiency while living all over the US: Norman, OK, Newport News, VA, Seattle, WA, New Orleans, LA, Atlanta, GA, Miami, FL, Corinth, MS, and St. Louis, MO.

Chuck started his career in 1958 at Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Company where he worked on the USS Robert E. Lee ballistic missile submarine. He also worked on the USS Enterprise aircraft carrier, the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and the largest ship in the world when it joined the fleet in 1961. From there, Chuck was on a team in Seattle setting up production schedules for the Boeing Minuteman program, America’s first solid-fuel, quick-reacting Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) system. Next, he transferred to New Orleans to work on the NASA Saturn program, developed primarily to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing humans on the moon. After this he worked in Atlanta on Lockheed’s C-5A Galaxy program, already in production, which became the U.S. Air Force’s premier strategic airlifter.

From there, Chuck thought government contracts might not be as stable for his future, so he decided to move into a different industry: printing. “When I retired out of St. Louis in 2001, I was the senior vice president of three printing plants,” he said. “Some publications we have printed are National Geographic, TV Guide and Spiegel Catalog.”

Chuck and Shirley started living in Panama City Beach part-time in 2018. During that period, they made a boat trip through the Tombigbee Waterway en route to stay at their main home, which was on a lake in Florence, AL, at the time. This was a fortuitous trip in that they averted Hurricane Michael, which devastated parts of Florida’s Panhandle in October of that year. “The place where we kept the boat was severely damaged so we would have lost the boat.”

In July of 2022, the McDonalds decided to make Bay Point their permanent neighborhood. “My daughter lives in the area,” said Shirley. “People are friendly. They look up and speak to you when you walk by.”

While Chuck is tinkering with their Riviera at the marina, Shirley stays busy on the computer playing bridge with friends. “I play with people from England, Russia, France…all over the world,” she said. In her retirement years before she met Chuck, she also traveled to places like Russia, Italy, China, Sweden, and Germany. “I went on a lot of cruises,” she said.

Together, they can be found loving and tending to their dog, Charlie, a rescue who is seven years old and has three legs. They adopted the poodle knowing it would have special needs. “Charlie is intelligent. When he hears me zippering my jacket from the other room, he comes out crying to go with me on the boat,” said Chuck.

Chuck’s current project is preparing the Riviera for new adventures this upcoming season for the two of them. The name of their new vessel? Euphoria. “It is a big word for being happy,” said Chuck. “We are happy,” said Shirley. “We have good friends who live here.”