In Memory

Earl Macal

Earl Macal



 
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07/29/11 04:08 PM #1    

John McNamee

  Earl Macal attended St Ed's GS, along with his good friend of years, bob Barina,  and graduated in 1958. He attended St Cat's until his junior year - and being 18 years of age at the time - and having a somewhat trouble family life - he left the Class of 1962 - and joined the US Military.

   Best of my recollection, he served in the US Army in Korea. Upon discharge he entered into an apprentice program and worked at various industrial firms - maintaining equipment / structures, etc.

   Bob and Earl had been friends for years before high school and loved to fish together - but always argued "who was the better fisherman - Bob or Earl" This continued for years. Bob and Earl both married - both wonderful women - but they continued to argue about who the better fisherman was.

   Sometime around 2000?, Earl was diagnosed with cancer ( liver? - not sure at this point ) - at some point he was cured, but as everybody knows, cancer can re-appear at any time, and it did.  During his final argument with cancer - Earl called Bob and told him of the cancer problem. Bob did his best to maintain his composure and add some humor to their discussion. Earl asked for one last favor from his old fishing buddy, who had never let him down before, - "who was the better fisherman?".

   Bob Barina never let his best buddy down .... and you know the rest of the story.

10 Jan 1943 - 28 Jul 2004 Hernando, Citrus, Florida.

 


08/01/11 12:18 AM #2    

John McNamee

Norma Jean Macal commented on your wall post:"Yes, he died of pancreatic cancer about 5 years ago in July. He had hadHodgkins disease the first year after we married. He had lots of radiation.He worked at Western Printing and went through their apprenticeship program. He became a Wisconsin state indentured Master Machine Repairman. He workedthere for about 17 years and then went to Twin Disc for about 15 yearswhere he was head of Machine Repair. We had one child, David, who lives inAlaska. Earl and I divorced in 1990 after receiving counseling foralcoholism addiction. He was quite a golfer, enjoyed bowling, hunting andfishing. He died in Florida at his brother and sister's home."


08/02/11 09:27 AM #3    

Mark Engelbreth

Earl and I hung around for a couple years and enjoyed carp fishing on the Root river together and drinking alot at the time .I believe we went to a dance (my first) in Earls 49 ford.My best and scariest memory was that Earl had a small motorcycle(Ducati scrambler) the we used to hill climb with in the Burlington area. Earl picked me up one morning to go to school-we were both about 200# at the time and the bike weighed about 250#. We took a left to get off the highway by Case's plant and being neophytes leaned too much.The foot peg hit the concrete, the bike did a 180 and we went back spliitng 2 lanes of traffic. I then got off and walked to school and never got on a bike again.I lost track of Earl in our Junior year but saw him at our last reunion.RIP Earl 

 

Mark Engelbreth


09/05/11 08:45 PM #4    

John McNamee

Note from Norma Macal, ex-wife of Earl (via Facebook):

I am not too computer literate, but, you could add this for me if you like.

  Earl loved the out of doors and fishing. We went wilderness camping in the Boundary Waters and the Quetico above Ely Minnesota many times.
Our canoe would be placed on the pontoon of a small aircraft and we would fly to some remote area. We'd be given our canoe, gear, a map and a destination point at which they would pick us up 10 days later. There would be great fishing, too many portages, and a campsite we would have to locate each afternoon.

  If the weather was great, it would be a wonderful, but not so much if the black flies were out and about. We rarely saw another person or canoe each time we went in the late 60s and 70s. In the evening you would hear the loons as we sat around the campfire. It was quiet and serene and probably some of his happiest times. Earl always got us to our destination point after seeing amazing scenery, and at times being lost for a few hours. To me the map was just a maze of yellow and blue. What great times we shared!


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