The “King of Cruise”

Foster School alumnus Stanley McDonald—known as the “King of Cruise”—has died at the age of 94.

McDonald graduated from the University of Washington in 1943 with a business  degree and a manifest entrepreneurial spirit. Though his resume includes the building of successful  real estate and construction businesses, he was best known as the founding father of the American cruise ship industry. His novel idea of using a cruise ship as floating hotel to serve tourists arriving for Seattle’s 1962 World’s Fair turned into Princess Cruise Lines—a pioneering company that perhaps most famously served as seafaring set of the long-running television series “The Love Boat.”

For his many contributions to the Northwest economy, McDonald received the Foster School’s Alumni Leadership Award in 2004.

According to the Seattle Times, McDonald’s family has requested that gifts in his honor be directed to the Foster School or the Stellar Club at the Swedish Medical Center Foundation.