Gregory Eugene McCarthy

Our sweet father, Greg McCarthy, went to be with our Lord on Friday, January 23, 2026 of natural causes. A celebration of life will be held this summer. Please check back for date, time and location.

Gregory Eugene McCarthy was born on January 17, 1949 in Boise, Idaho to Ambrose “Andy” Matthias McCarthy and Dorothy Zamzow McCarthy. He came home from the hospital in a 1935 Dodge Pick-up that his dad had purchased the year before from a farmer in Payette for $150, and in time his three children would come home from the hospital in it too. He grew up in Boise with his older brother Michael McCarthy, spending many days playing on the old coal burning railroad engine down the street from his Grandpa McCarthy’s house. Their Grandfather August “Gus” Zamzow taught both of them how to fish. They spent months in Kearney, Nebraska visiting their paternal grandparents, Emma and Charlie. They also went camping at Cascade Lake with their parents and he and his brother constructed a small raft and had a lot of fun with that. They also spent time with relatives at a cabin on Lake McCall.

Greg was a fan of classic cars early on, and began working on cars in high school including with his good friend Steve Mason, aka Racin’ Mason, whose pit crew he later joined. He endeared himself to friends through various high school shenanigans with his buddies, a love of music, working on cars, and taking orders for “beverages” on Wednesdays, which he’d place with his dad, owner of Andy’s Bar, Vista Bar and McCarthy’s, to deliver to the Friday night parties. He attended Borah High, but later was transferred and graduated from Capital High School. He married his high school sweetheart, Alice Elizabeth “Beth” Allen, in Boise, Idaho on January 20, 1967, and they had two children, Michael Charles McCarthy and Andrea “Andi” Lee McCarthy. They later divorced, and Greg married Terry Terese Hatcher on May 19, 1979, and they had a daughter, Jessica Jean McCarthy Dugandzic. By what would seem a modern day miracle, Beth and Terry became and remain friends, making it possible for all of us kids to grow up like a big, hard to explain, family, spending holidays together, going to sporting games, dance recitals and various gatherings together, including all spending this past Christmas with all the kids, grandkids, cousins, and in-laws. We give him credit that he knew how to pick great ex-wives.

Greg helped to create the Boise Vintage Gems Classic Car Club in 1978 with his best friend Gino Raga. The club did various fundraisers and canned food drives to support those in need in the Treasure Valley. His children have fond memories of going to car shows and rod runs with all of the various club families including the families of Mel Eggleston, Kirk Moore, Jack Jones, Jim Barber, Bill Nuttel and others. His daughter Jessica would stand in front of her dad’s restored car, the Fordie, at car shows and recite its history - “This is a 1940 Ford Two Door Sedan Deluxe. When we first got it, it had a bee hive in the backseat and cobwebs in the carburetor.” He later restored a 1965 Chevrolet truck, and he would race all of his cars at Firebird Raceway, or on Cherry Lane if a whipper snapper pulled up beside thinking he could take him on. He was a supporter of the Idaho Street Rod Association.

He worked in automotive parts and sales for Dennis Dillon, Larry Miller and others, and Jessica remembers watching him at the dining room table, highlighter in hand mapping out his routes to surrounding states. He liked telling us when he would bump into Bruce Willis while handling sales in Hailey, and he always had a dream of being a Southern California kid, riding along the PCH in a classic car, listening to the Beach Boys and Elvis Presley. He loved spending time in Garden Valley, and started a delivery business to bring goods to and from Boise for the residents and businesses there.

Our dad loved watching musicals - Hello Dolly, Bye Bye Birdie, The King and I - along with the Hallmark Channel, and he had a soft spot for Romantic Comedies, especially those starring Meg Ryan, who he colloquially called "Meggy". He was always encouraging to his children and the heartfelt messages he would write in the cards he sent to them they will cherish forever. He had an incredible knowledge of WWI and WWII planes and fighters that us kids didn't know about until Jessica’s son was born and they visited the Warhawk Air Museum, and we'll always wonder what other knowledge he was wanting to share with us before he left.

He had a soft spot for our four legged friends, and his companion, Finnegan the corgi, was with him until the end.

Greg was baptized Catholic, but no longer practiced the faith, however he loved Jesus and in particular, Saint Paul, whose story of redemption nearly brought him to tears at times. His children will miss their long phone calls with him, and when we could get him to laugh his rascally laugh or roll his eyes at our shenanigans. We'll teach our kids about the trolls that live under the cattle guards and how to honk at them, like our dad taught us. We'll make elaborate Valentine's Day mailboxes, and go to car shows and talk to the good old boys that remind us of him, and tell them about the cars our dad built, and sing his favorite oldies with our families in the car and just try to hold onto my people as tightly as he wanted to hold onto those he loved. We love and miss you Dad. You were our father, but you always told us that you still felt young, in your heart and soul, and we'll always remember you that way.

Survivors include his brother, Michael A. McCarthy, his son, Michael C. McCarthy of Boise, and daughters Andi McCarthy of Denver, CO and Jessica Dugandzic of Los Angeles, CA, two grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews. Memorials may be made to St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital and ASPCA, two charities he held close to his heart.

“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”

—Abbé Prévost

To be notified of a future Celebration of Life please email his daughter Jessica at memorial@mccfamily.anonaddy.com