The Oceanside School District’s notorious leader

Not many people remember MacDonald Egdorf’s tenure in the Oceanside School District. Egdorf was hired as the Superintendent of Schools in the summer of 1959 and had the challenge of “replacing” the recently retired and universally respected Dr. Walter S. Boardman. In addition, the School District had an incredible run of stability in this position as only two people, Dr. Boardman and S. Taylor Johnson had held the position over the previous 35 years.

Originally from Michigan, Egdorf was the Superintendent of Garden City Schools when he agreed to a three-year contract with Oceanside. While there were grumblings surrounding Egdorf’s management style and personality from the start, that could have easily been chalked up to the community and School District adjusting to a new personality. His handling of Hurricane Donna, however, resulted in a downward spiral from which Egdorf could not recover. On Sept. 12, 1960, as Hurricane Donna quickly approached Long Island, Egdorf could not be located and, consequently, provided no guidance to school principals. Afterwards the Board of Education and Administration were harshly criticized for sending students home during critical hours of the hurricane which unnecessarily endangered their health and safety. The board, in turn, ordered an immediate investigation, as it was widely reported that Egdorf was on his boat instead of working in the District addressing the impending hurricane.

On the evening of March 6, 1961, School Board trustees Thomas Morgan, Albert David Jordan, William Hauser and Andrew Southard voted to terminate “…the services of MacDonald F. Egdorf as Superintendent of Schools…”; only John Vandermosten opposed the motion. The board was extremely secretive, only stating “basic differences” as the reason for Egdorf’s dismissal. Despite his initial plan to continue working as usual, Egdorf quickly accepted that he was no longer superintendent. Egdorf, however, immediately challenged the board’s decision by filing an appeal with the State Education Commissioner.