HISTORY

Alton McDonald, founder and first president of McDonald Transit Associates, began his half-century transportation career at the Jacksonville Florida Traction Company in 1929. He progressed from an accounting position to comptroller of that firm, then went on to be the finance officer and transit specialist for several transportation organizations and consulting firms.

Between 1945 and 1972, he gained national recognition for directing the public acquisition and restoration of failing private bus companies throughout the United States. Perhaps his most remarkable accomplishment of this nature was at Akron, Ohio. Following the bankruptcy of the private bus company in 1969, Akron was the largest city in the nation with no transit system. Starting with no funding, no facility, no vehicles, and no employees, Mr. McDonald had bus service on the streets 30 days after his arrival.

In 1972, he founded McDonald Transit Associates for the specific purpose of applying consumer-oriented private enterprise management techniques to the operation of public transportation. He assisted Fort Worth, the company’s first client, with purchase of the failing private bus company, and creation of the city’s first public transportation system. The demonstrated success of his management and operational techniques led to continual growth and national recognition for the company he founded.

Prior to his retirement as president in 1979, he chaired a number of committees for the American Public Transit Association, and served two terms as a vice president and member of its board of directors. In recognition of his contributions to transportation, he was inducted into the APTA Hall of Fame in 1984.

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