Rich 'Mac' McIntosh
State Track Champ & Coach - Class of 1971
Born:
March 24, 1953 at Tachikawa Air Base,
Japan. Son of an Air Force C-119 Flight Engineer
flying in the Korean War and a Japanese war bride.
Education:
Marshfield High School, class of 1971
United States Air Force Academy, class of 1975
Bachelor of Science in History
Indiana University, class of 1976 Master
of Arts in History
Air War College, class of 1995
My parents raised me with dual priorities
- grades and sports. When dad retired from a
23-year
Air Force career in 1968 and moved to Oregon, he
chose Marshfield for its academic and athletic
reputation.
The faculty, administrators and coaching staff
offered a challenging, competitive and comprehensive
education that nurtured future Olympians, Ivy
League graduates, and leaders in medicine, the law
and business. Janet Farr and I earned co-valedictorian
honors, Lois McKenna chose me as editor of the MaHi
Times, and Walt McClure named me captain of the
boys varsity track and field team. Most
importantly,
I met and fell in love with Linnea Wright in sophomore
English class. After earning her undergraduate
degree from Oregon State, she married me in 1975
and together, we've created our greatest legacy:
Rex
Aris McIntosh and Rachael McIntosh Taylor.
I learned lessons from four hall-of-fame coaches
in their prime, Stan Solomon (hurdling), John Johnson
(JV football), Pete Susick (Varsity football) and
Walt McClure (track) that inspired an
intercollegiate
career at the Air Force Academy. As a hurdler, I anchored
a world and American record setting 240-yard
shuttle hurdle relay team in
1975, earned Track and Field News All-America honors, and captained the team. Head Coach Arne Arneson
chose me Most Valuable
Track and Field Athlete as a junior and senior. Our hurdle relay team included state champions
from Oregon. Hawaii and Arkansas and won the Drake Relays, Ohio State
Relays and Michigan State Relays in
the 1975 season.
Fighter aviation and command provided anchors
for a 30-year career as an Air Force officer. I've
pushed F-15 Eagles through skies over Arizona,
Nevada, Florida, Virginia, Saudi Arabia, and
Hawaii,
logging nearly 2,000 hours an hour-and-a-half at a
time. Command of detachments as small as 10 and
as large as 300, including an Air Staff division at
the
Pentagon taught lessons about leadership, accountability, and
team-building. My last assignment
as commander of Air Force ROTC
detachments at Loyola
Marymount University, the University of Southern California (USC), and
the University of
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reinforced this primary life lesson - making people you care about
successful provides
intense personal and professional gratification.
I'm honored to be a member of the Pirate coaching
fraternity and working to enhance a legacy that includes my most
influential teachers, inspiring role
models, and informative mentors.