Mary Brigid McDonough

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McDonough, Mary Brigid On January 21, 2020 Mary Brigid McDonough of Saint Paul, Minnesota died of cancer. She will be missed by many. Born October 7, 1951 in Washington, DC and raised in Stillwater, Minnesota, Brigid was a graduate of Archbishop Murray High School (1969), Macalester College (BA Art History 1973), William Mitchell College of Law (JD 1984) and the NYU Master of Laws (LLM 1986) program. Married for over thirty years to Reid McLean, Brigid was a longtime attorney at Briggs & Morgan where her focus was low-income housing development. Her belief in serving underserved populations led her to provide pro bono citizenship services to immigrant and refugee families. Inspired by the DFL tradition and Senator Paul Wellstone, Brigid had a deep history of political and community involvement. She served as the chair of the St. Paul DFL, as a member of the Macalester College Alumni and Hmong American Partnership boards, and for years was Treasurer of the Klobuchar for Senate Campaign. She offered informal guidance to many Twin Cities non-profit organizations and worked on dozens of local, state and national political campaigns. Brigid believed in the role of both government and non-profit organizations to achieve equity and social justice for all. Kind, funny, smart, and fiercely loyal to friends and family, Brigid loved to travel and read; all who knew her benefited enormously from her trip and book recommendations. She was deeply interested in people, in politics, in the worlds of literature and art, in Bruce Springsteen and the Beatles, and drew great pleasure in conversing about all those subjects and more. Brigid is survived by husband Reid McLean; siblings Maura (Kevin) Cope, Richard McDonough (Mimi Exon) and Maureen McDowall (Peter Anderson); and nieces and nephews Rory, Shannon and Ryan Stewart, Shawn Cope and Miles and George McDowall. Preceded in death by Hon. Judge John T. McDonough (father), Mary Horgan McDonough (mother), Molly McDonough Stewart (sister), Erin Stewart (niece), and Paul McDowall (brother-in-law). She loved her family deeply. A memorial gathering will be held at the Macalester College Chapel (1600 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55102) 2:30 pm Saturday, February 15. Memorials preferred to Macalester College and The Advocates for Human Rights.

Published on February 9, 2020