McNamara, Francis Thomas (Mugs) passed gently into the morning light of November 7, 2020, 43 days short of his 87th Birthday surrounded by his family. He was the youngest and the last surviving child of John and Josephine McNamara and was preceded in death by his beloved siblings Mary, James, Anne, and John.
The son of an Irish immigrant, Mugs was bread and buttered in the town he loved so well attending Christian Brothers High School, Sacramento City College, and Sacramento State University. He graduated from Chico State University in 1959 with a bachelor’s degree in education followed by a master’s degree in the same subject.
He was a lifelong learner devoted to his books and the arts. He would spend 47 years as a teacher and principal beginning with the Sacramento City Unified School District, commencing with the Catholic Diocese of Sacramento, with indelible tenures at Joseph Bonham, Caleb Greenwood, John Bidwell, St. Ann’s, and St. Patrick’s. With quiet strength he helmed his schools through the turbulence of the 1960’s and 70’s and often was ahead of his contemporaries regarding matters of racial harmony, special needs education, and the need to develop magnet schools. His legacy is not in the many awards he garnered but in the testimony of his former students and teachers who revere, to this day, his exemplary example. He expanded the definition of “us” and shrunk the definition of “them” in every community he had the privilege of working with.
With one brother behind the plate, and another the leader at shortstop, he settled into the middle garden of the outfield, lovingly watching their skills and happy to catch anything they missed. He was devoted to our national pastime, and baseball is poorer in his absence.
His smile will outlive the Cheshire’s, and as an Irishman, bereft of stereotypes, he will be feted wherever green is worn. He was mystic, atavistic, and honest as the bogs that slowly churn in his father’s county of Mayo. Like his namesake, St. Francis, he did not just recite prayers he lived them; sowing love where there was hate, faith over doubt, hope over despair, light over darkness, and joy over sadness. You were the most important person to him, whether you were the backyard bore at a BBQ, or a Nobel Laurate at a banquet. He listened, his eyes twinkled; at times he gave advice, and you went away richer.
Shakespeare would blush at the romance he shared with Sally for 60 years. With a disposition that imitated the sun, he began and ended every day in a glorious mood: laughing, teasing and singing. He inspired his children to seek newer worlds and was always delighted to see them return to the haven of his back yard to relish in their adventures. We brought back rocks from faraway places and he lovingly plotted them throughout his garden. He had rich and meaningful relations with his daughter in law and two sons in laws. He tended to his five grandchildren like a benevolent shepherd and was the keeper of secrets and the inspiration of dreams that would become careers.
The name McNamara translates to the original Irish as: Son of the Hound of the Sea, and although he was fond of dogs, he could not swim a lick, no matter how hard he tried; but he loved the Sacramento River and it flowed past many of the ball parks that he graced across Northern California. The day before his passing, Mugs requested one last car ride down the river road. Gazing out the window, one of Sacramento’s finest sons was given a stunning visual farewell from his old friend as the fall colors reflected in the tranquil water.
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