'60s surfer co-founded group noted in Wolfe's 'Pump House Gang'

SAN DIEGO - Jack Macpherson, a key figure in the 1960s Southern California surf scene who co-founded a fabled group described in Tom Wolfe's The Pump House Gang, died Nov. 16. He was 69.

Mr. Macpherson died of liver and kidney failure at a La Jolla hospital, his son John Macpherson said Wednesday.

He called his father "an old-school surfer who had a great life."

"Mac" Macpherson was never mentioned by name in Wolfe's 1960s magazine article about the Southern California youth culture that became the title selection in the book The Pump House Gang.

Demolished homes, partied

However, Wolfe did mention the Mac Meda Destruction Company in his chronicle about young surfers who hung out at the sewage pump house at La Jolla's Windansea Beach.

The Mac Meda Destruction Company was named for the antics of Mr. Macpherson and his friend Bob "Meda" Rakestraw. Crew members wearing football helmets and wielding sledgehammers demolished condemned houses for fun (with the owners' permission, they said) and held wild parties.

Wolfe described the company as an "underground society" that "is mainly something to bug people with and organize huge beer orgies with."

Mr. Macpherson was a postal worker for years, retiring in 1991. He also was a bartender at a Pacific Beach pub, London's West End, which features Mac Meda memorabilia.

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