James B. MacNaughton, Jr. ’45 died on January 31, 2010, in Queensbury, New York.
(The following was provided by The Post Star on February 2, 2010)
James B. MacNaughton, Jr. ’45
QUEENSBURY – Rev. James B. MacNaughton Jr., age 86, of Queensbury, passed away on Sunday, Jan. 31, 2010, at the Stanton Nursing Home.
Jim was born in Cambridge, N.Y. on Oct. 31, 1923, the son of the late James MacNaughton Sr. and Anna (Pratt) MacNaughton.
He attended Glens Falls High School and went on to further his education at Bowdoin College in New Brunswick, Maine, and Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1954. He graduated from Union with a Master of Sacred Theology degree in 1954. Jim was ordained in December 1952, in the First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls by Troy Presbytery. He was a former member of the Troy, Utica, and West Jersey presbyteries, and was currently a member of the Hudson River Presbytery.
After his retirement from serving as pastor of the Webb Norton Memorial Presbyterian Church from 1972 to 1988, in Middletown, N.Y., Jim and his wife, Mary, moved to Queensbury. He had previously served as pastor at the Community Presbyterian Church in Brigantine, N.J. from 1959 to 1972, and the First Presbyterian Church in Waterville, N.Y. from 1953 to 1959.
Jim served in the U.S. Army from March of 1943 to December of 1945. He was a corporal with the 294th Combat Engineer Battalion, First Army. He served during five campaigns during World War II in Europe and was awarded the World War II Victory Medal.
He was aboard the only ship sunk during the Invasion of Normandy, the Susan B. Anthony, on June 7, 1944. He was among the first troops to enter Berlin in the summer of 1945.
On June 20, 1953, Jim married Mary Elizabeth Muir in James Chapel at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
During his lifetime Jim was the founder and president of the Oneida-Madison Migrant Committee; founder and President of the Atlantic City, New Jersey Council of Churches; founder and vice-president of Atlantic Human Resources in Atlantic City, N.J.; Chairman of the Atlantic City Urban Ministry Commission; Chairman of the National Mission Committee, West Jersey Presbytery; Chairman of the Congregational Life Committee, Hudson River Presbytery; President of the Interfaith Council in Middletown, N.Y.; and Pastor Emeritus of Webb Horton Memorial Presbyterian Church in Middletown, N.Y. He was also given a civil rights leadership award by the American Civil Liberties Union of South Jersey.
Jim was the author of two books: The MacNaughtons of Argyle in 1994, and The Argyle Patent and Its Early Settlers in 1999.
In addition to being predeceased by his parents, James and Anna (Pratt) MacNaughton, Jim was predeceased by his sister, Miss Emily MacNaughton of Riverview, Fla.
Survivors include his wife, Mary Elizabeth (Muir) MacNaughton; his two daughters, Elisabeth Ruffing and her husband, William, of Daytona Beach, Fla., and Christine MacNaughton and her husband, William Smith, of Nyack, N.Y.; a son, James M. MacNaughton and his wife, Maureen Mooney, of Albany, N.Y.; his grandchildren: Christopher MacNaughton of Pennsylvania, Brittanie Ruffing of Daytona Beach, Fla., Lance MacNaughton Smith of Nyack, N.Y., and Ewan MacNaughton of Albany, N.Y.