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He forced an amendment in the union constitution curbing McDonald's powers. But that was as far as Phil Murray would go. One day he remarked with melancholy to McDonald: "Don't worry. You know damn well you'll be president when I'm gone." In 1952, when Murray died suddenly on the West Coast, the mandate was carried out. After 30 years' preparation for the role, David McDonald became, without opposition, second president of the United Steelworkers of America. In one respect, it was an unenviable assignment. McDonald was moving into the chair of one of labor's most beloved men. Every move he made, every decision, would be gauged against the lustrous record of his predecessor.
First Mistake. McDonald made one early slip, but it taught him a lesson. Negotiating a contract for striking workers at Alco Products, Inc., he and Alco's President Perry Egbert agreed on terms that McDonald's membership later refused to accept. Said a mediator who had followed the incident: "We frankly doubted after that experience whether McDonald would ever be able to negotiate successfully with the more sophisticated Big Steel people. But he evidently learned the important lesson that he had to be prepared when he sat down with management."
Today, after four years at the job, McDonald has gained management's respect. He has even won over many of the old-line Steelworkers who resented his qualifications for the post. A top official of a steel company who has watched McDonald develop believes that he "has a good understanding−I won't say of economics−but of what makes things tick." A union official says, "Dave is less of a mixer with the rank and file but he takes a dynamic approach to everything." One reason why McDonald knows what ticks is that he is ably seconded by wise, trusted and experienced Lawyer Arthur Goldberg, Economist Otis Brubaker and the union's longtime public-relations chief, Vincent Sweeney.
Trouble at Home. McDonald's full-time fascination with his job had a serious effect on his home life. On Aug. 4, 1937, he married Emily Lou Price, a Cleveland socialite who had become John L. Lewis' secretary. Nine years later she sued for divorce. "He was a dedicated union man," she recently explained. "I wasn't grown up enough to adjust to his life; I wanted to build a home. When he put the union ahead of me, I was wounded." They had one child, David Jr., now 17. When in 1950 McDonald married his secretary, Rosemary McHugh, his first wife was willing that young David should live with them. "I wanted him to be with his dad more and to be the same kind of man," she explained.