Author with deep ties to Spain Park pens WWII book about father

Signs of Frank Spain’s philanthropy can be seen around Birmingham, from UAB’s Spain Rehabilitation Center to Spain Park High School. Though Spain donated the land for the high school to be built, his grandson, William “Billy” McDonald III, had never set foot in that piece of his grandfather’s legacy until 2017.

Spain Park High School opened in 2001 on land that was donated by Spain, an attorney, to the city of Birmingham after his death in 1986. Billy McDonald said he recalled visiting the farmland as a child, but “back then, that was out in the boonies.”

Billy McDonald and his sister were part of the negotiations for Hoover to receive the land, but he said he had never visited the school since it was built.

It was his father’s story, rather than his grandfather’s legacy, that opened the door for Billy McDonald to see the school for the first time. He had completed a book on his father, William “Mac” McDonald Jr., and his service as a fighter pilot in World War II, and he reached out to SPHS Principal Larry Giangrosso to offer a copy for the library.

When Giangrosso learned of the family connection, he instead invited Billy McDonald and his wife Nancy to tour the school near the end of 2017. Billy McDonald said he got to see nearly every room in the school, meet students and see what his grandfather’s gift had produced.

“It is an amazing school,” Nancy McDonald said. Billy McDonald added he was particularly impressed by the engineering and nursing academies, which expose students to career paths before they graduate.

Three copies of Billy McDonald’s book, “The Shadow Tiger,” also now sit in the SPHS library, history department and on Giangrosso’s desk.

His first visit to Spain Park won’t be his last, either. Giangrosso said he has invited Billy McDonald to return to speak to students about his book and about China’s involvement in WWII, when students will be studying that period of history.

Billy McDonald found documents in his sister’s basement detailing his father’s service with the Chinese Air Force, including running rescue missions, carrying supplies over the Himalayas and defense against Japanese pilots. He had heard a few of his father’s stories growing up but said he never realized the extent of what Mac McDonald and a small group of American pilots, known as the “Flying Tigers,” had done.

“He was always thought of here as, ‘That’s Frank Spain’s son-in-law.’ And that was what Daddy was famous for,” Billy McDonald said. “In his own right, he led an extraordinary life and did some extraordinary things.”

After five years of research and an additional year of writing, “The Shadow Tiger” draws on nearly 30,000 pages of documents about Mac McDonald and the war in China as seen from a fighter pilot’s cockpit. Many of the documents Billy McDonald discovered are now housed in museums throughout China, and the Smithsonian is also digitizing part of his collection for other researchers to use. 

“How many people in Birmingham, Alabama, are in the Smithsonian?” Billy McDonald said.

Billy McDonald said he’s looking forward to returning to Spain Park High School to share with students about multiple generations of his family’s legacy.

“His story is this pretty spellbinding story. And flying over the Hump, over the Himalayan mountains, in planes loaded with gasoline and gunpowder, is close to insanity,” McDonald said.