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Press Release

CONTACT: Sharon Tucker (415) 824 8465, sharon@tucker-elie.com

 McDonald Windows Exhibition Incorporates Stained Glass Shards

Collected from Church Ruins during World War II  

SAN FRANCISCO, January 9, 2007 – Artists from Europe and the U.S. have created windows that incorporate shards of stained glass collected by U.S. Army Chaplain Frederick A. McDonald at damaged and destroyed European churches in 1944-45. These art pieces form a traveling exhibition, “Remembered Light: Glass Fragments from World War II. The McDonald Windows.” It opens at the Presidio Officers’ Club in San Francisco on Jan. 24.

 From 1999 until his death in 2002, the Rev. McDonald collaborated with principal artist and project manager Armelle Le Roux to envision the McDonald Windows. He wanted these beautiful works of art “to serve as a memorial to the places they were found and offer hope for lasting peace.”

In all, 13 artists created 25 “windows” in diverse media including ceramic, silk screen, vinyl, copper, and glass. Their work takes a range of forms and dimensions, varying from a 9 x 14-inch glass book, its shard from an unknown site, by Le Roux, the principal artist and project manager, to a 41 x 30-inch crown of thorns created in antique glass by Narcissus Quagliata, with shards from the Cathedral of St. Stephen, Metz, France. See www.interfaith-presidio.org/mcdonald.

“Our family is proud to fulfill the wish of my great Uncle Wick, as we affectionately called him as children, and bring these bits of glass back to light as a memorial exhibit for all to see,” said nephew Bruce McDonald, a San Francisco restaurateur.

Chaplain McDonald served in General Omar Bradley’s 12th Army Group from August 1944 until the end of World War II, after which he taught at Biarritz Army University. His pastoral vocation took Seattle-born Rev. McDonald around the world.

The exhibition will travel following its San Francisco opening; venues and dates have not yet been finalized. Fundraising is underway for a $6 million expansion and endowment of the Presidio Main Post Interfaith Chapel, where the McDonald Windows will be permanently installed. This new wing will add “stature and interest to an already beautiful sacred space,” said the Rev. Paul Chaffee, Chapel Director.

“Remembered Light” is open Wednesday through Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm, through April 15, 2007, at the Presidio Officers’ Club, 50 Moraga Avenue, San Francisco. The Presidio, in continuous use as a military post from 1776 to 1994, is now a 1,491-acre national park site.