Patrick Michael Madison-McDonald died early Monday, July 7, at his home in Manhattan. He died peacefully, while listening to opera. He was born in Niskayuna, NY, November 21, 1975, to Dr. Richard D. McDonald and the former Eileen E. Powers. Both parents were educators. Living in Waterford, NY, the family shared the home of Patrick’s maternal grandmother, Bertha Whiting Powers, a pharmacist, with whom Patrick enjoyed an especially close relationship. He attended local public schools and graduated from LaSalle Academy in 1994. At SUNY Albany, Patrick received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theater Arts and English in 1998. The next year, he began studies for a Masters in Theater Arts; he also taught acting classes and acted professionally in the Hudson Valley.

Moving to New York City at the turn of the century, Patrick turned toward the service industry for the remainder of his career. He tended bar for 14 years, on and off, at the Town House on the East Side. Among his waiting and bartending gigs at other establishments, he especially enjoyed serving Broadway performers after their shows at Charlie O’s in Times Square, where he offered tourists authoritative advice on what to see — and what not to see.

In 2004, Patrick spent the summer on Fire Island, working as a bartender at the Ice Palace in Cherry Grove. He never lost his love for the community he found there, returning every year for vacation. In 2019, he chose the beach in Cherry Grove as the site for his wedding to William V. Madison, an author and journalist, originally from Texas.

Patrick met his future husband at the Town House in 2001. Though they did not begin a romantic relationship until 2010, they remained in close contact in the intervening years, and began sharing an apartment in the Inwood neighborhood in 2011. Patrick proposed in the fall of 2018, but he insisted that the engagement wasn’t official until he had obliged Bill to hike down a mountainside and ford a stream on the island of Hawaii. There, on another beach, in February 2019, they exchanged rings for the first time. They spent almost every day together for the next six years.

Patrick was a man of outsized enthusiasms: for the zoo, for theater and movies, for art and museums, and for opera. He was never happier than when sharing things he loved with people he cared about, whether swimming with manta rays, riding rollercoasters, watching “Jaws” for the hundredth time, or planning for the Zombie Apocalypse. Though he never owned a dog, he loved animals and regularly stopped strangers to commune with their puppies; he treasured his visits to his best friend, Amy Marciano, at her animal rescue in the Poconos. He loved to hike, and he craved spicy food. (“Try to kill me,” he implored waitstaff.) In recent years, he devoted much time to reading, tearing through classics, Stephen King, and “the horror genre.”

He would be disappointed to learn that he did not die in a shark attack. His widower, however, is grateful.

Patrick is survived by his mother, Eileen Capasso, of Saratoga Springs; by his father and stepmother, Christine McDonald, of Mechanicville; by his sister, Molly Brown, and her husband, Jeff, of Clifton Park; and by his beloved nephew and niece, Cooper and Callie Brown, who brought him great joy. John  and Catherine Powers of Rome, NY; and Larry  and Maureen Powers, of Sydney, Australia, survive him, as well, as do their children and grandchildren. One of nine children, Rich McDonald provided Patrick with an abundance of aunts, uncles, and cousins, many of whom survive. Patrick’s mother-in-law, Ray T. Madison, of Goliad, TX; and his brother-in-law, Lincoln Madison, of San Francisco, also survive him.

Services will be private. Those wishing to remember Patrick may do so by making a donation in his name to Sugar Mutts Rescue and Skymeadow Farm Sanctuary at this address: 1610 Route 507, Greentown, PA 18426