Sterling Bryan McDonald was born November 29, 1892, in Alvo, Cass County, Nebraska, the son of Robert Dodge McDonald and Endora White.
He was educated in the public and high schools in Greenwood, Nebraska and was a graduate of Cotner University in Lincoln, Nebraska. Sterling was a student at the Art Institute of Chicago and also the Armour Institute of Technology in Chicago.
He was engaged in private industrial designing, color engineering and architectural design and served as design coordinator for the first Union Pacific and Santa Fe Streamliners. Sterling was also the interior designer for the American Airlines Flagship Fleet of DC-3’s and DC-4’s.
He was appointed to serve in the Consumer’s Durable Goods Division of the Office of Price Stabilization during the Korean War.
Sterling was an interior decorating consultant with the Kroehler Manufacturing Company at the time of his retirement. He was the author of several books on design, “How To Use Color,” “Color Harmony,” and “Better Homes – How To Furnish Them.”
Sterling was known nationally as an expert on color and interior design and gave lectures both on the radio and in person on the subjects during his career.
He was a veteran of World War I serving in the Ambulance Company 364, A.E.F from 1917 to 1919 in France and with the Army of Occupation, receiving the Divisional Citation Decoration.
Sterling first married Etta M. Dotson on May 10, 1916, in Lincoln, Nebraska. They had no children. Etta died October 13, 1930, in Rochester, Minnesota.
He married Lenore Ida Clow September 25, 1946, in Wheatland, Will County, Illinois. Sterling and Lenore purchased the farm on Knoch Knolls Road which Lenore donated to the Conservation Foundation in 1997.
Sterling was raised a Master Mason on June 16, 1923, and affiliated with Euclid Lodge No. 65 on September 21, 1954, from Logan Square Lodge No. 891, Chicago, Illinois.
He died June 26, 1966, in Naperville, DuPage County, Illinois. Dr. Arnold Buol, retired pastor of the DuPage Presbyterian Church, conducted the funeral services and Sterling was buried in the Wheatland Cemetery, Naperville, Will County, Illinois.
