Under the last blue awning in an alley between Draper Avenue and Cuvier Street in La Jolla, a legend lives on.
The story of Jack Macpherson, 69, of La Jolla, and the infamous Mac Meda Destruction Company he co-founded with friend Bob “Meda” Rakestraw, lies inside the small, one-room screenprinting shop, The Branding Iron, and has been constantly shared by owner Doug Moranville over the last few weeks since Macpherson’s death on Nov. 16.
The “Mac” in Mac Meda Destruction passed away several weeks ago of liver and kidney failure in a La Jolla hospital, but his legacy began sometime in the 1960s, when he and Rakestraw became friends and roommates and began hanging out at the WindanSea Beach pump house and knocking down old, decaying houses with sledgehammers.
The duo gained a following of surfers and beachgoers and held “conventions” and “summer camps” at La Jolla’s Windansea and Mexico’s Calavera beaches. These events were retold by author Tom Wolfe in his 1966 short story called “The Pump House Gang” and then were published in a 1968 book by the same name.
Fun times spent playing horseshoes, skindiving for fish, hitting golf balls off ledges into the ocean and drinking at those beaches are how many of Macpherson’s closest friends remember him. The community also knows him for his 35-year career as a mailman and as a bartender for the last 15 years at The West End Bar in Bird Rock.
On a recent day at Moranville’s shop, one customer after another strolled under the wide, metal rolling gate that acts as a door and requested Mac Meda T-shirts and bumper stickers.
“They say nobody will touch your car at the beach if you have one of these stickers on it,” Moranville joked, holding up a yellow and red circular decal that reads “Mac Meda Destruction Co.” and is embellished with the group’s mushroom cloud logo.
Back in the day, if police ” who considered Mac Meda a gang of troublemakers ” saw a person wearing a shirt or displaying a sticker, they would take them in on the spot, the shop owner said.
Moranville, who is ten years Macpherson’s junior, met “Mac” when he was still a teenager and grew up idolizing Mac Meda. He opened his shop in 1978 and has been producing the group’s logo T-shirts ever since, he said.
Lynn Clark, a petite woman who grew up in La Jolla and went to high school with Macpherson, shared her memories while waiting for Moranville to bag three Mac Meda shirts and a sticker she just purchased.
“I was friends with his first wife, Diane,” Clark said as she gathered her memorabilia. “We go way back. When Jack and Diane were dating, oh, my God, those were fun times down in Mexico.”
Other shirts boast Albert the gorilla, a critter at the San Diego Zoo that Rakestraw took a liking to and decided to make the Mac Meda mascot, according to Moranville.
Many Mac Meda stories include breaking down houses, smashing in hoods of cars and other raucous behavior that “you wouldn’t believe if I told you,” Moranville said.
Jamie Nay can back that up.
Nay, 54, was Macpherson’s girlfriend on and off for the last 22 years. They ended their relationship several months before his death, she said.
“Everyone called him ‘Little Jackie Macpherson,'” said Nay, who is originally from Whittier, Calif., in Los Angeles County. “He was something else. He knew everybody “” a real people person ” and you just never knew who you were going to meet when you were out with him.”
Coming from a traditional Scottish family that settled in San Diego in 1912 and was made up mostly of doctors, Macpherson had it in his genes to make a name for himself, Nay said.
“I don’t care if they were surfers or surgeons; they all stand out,” she said, “It’s an amazing family.”
She added that although he came from a wealthy background, he always lived a simple life, and she pointed out that, for close to 18 years, he lived in a small, garage-like apartment in Bird Rock.
Macpherson was not only an incredible surfer but also an all-around natural athlete, almost making it to the Olympics and receiving the Amateur Athletic Union’s (AAU) weightlifting champion title in his weight class, Nay and Moranville said. He also liked to ski and bike, according to his son, John Macpherson III.
John lives in San Clemente with his two sons, John Jr., 8, and Shane, 14, and has been slightly overwhelmed with the response he’s gotten from his father’s death. The Associated Press, as well as the L.A. Times and other major news agencies, have recently published stories on Macpherson.
“He lived a full life and a fun life, and he enjoyed every moment of it,” Macpherson’s son said. “And that’s important.”
His fondest memories of his father include participating in the annual bike race along the Baja California coast to Ensenada and Macpherson taking him on “father and son” ski trips to Big Bear Mountain when he was a youth.
John admitted to following in his father’s footsteps as both an avid surfer and skier and hopes to carry on that tradition with his sons by taking them on a snowboarding trip in the near future. His older son is also a member of his high school’s surfing team.
John hopes that La Jolla’s close-knit community continues to uphold his father’s name and story, and carry on that tradition as well.
“I want the Mac Meda tradition to live on,” he said. “I want the tradition of what Jack did to live on. I hope this will all go on to a bigger legacy.”
A Hawaiian-style “Paddle Out” at Windansea Beach in La Jolla at noon Sunday, Dec. 10, followed by a wake at 2 p.m. that day at the West End Bar in Bird Rock will be held in Macpherson’s honor. For information, call the West End, (858) 488-1191.