The 73-year-old MacAulay (inset) was recently honored by the Massachusetts Track & Field Officials Association with a lifetime membership, acknowledging a half-century of service to the organization he joined in 1961 after his graduation from Northeastern.

He has served as an official at thousands of high school and college cross-country and track meets, as well as road races including the Boston Marathon. But officiating is only one of the many contributions he has made to the sport through the years.

MacAulay now divides his time between York, Maine, where he owns and runs the Faircrest Motel with wife, Ann, and Gulfport, Fla. Born in Dorchester, he resided for many years in Quincy. From 1969 to 1973, he coached at Stoneham High; his 1971-72 squad won the Class B state title in cross-country, indoor track, and outdoor track.

A runner at the former Commerce High of Boston and then NU, MacAulay worked as a student co-op at the Globe and then on the paper’s sports copy desk. There, he started covering cross-country and indoor and outdoor track at the high school level.

Getting results from the organized chaos that is a cross-country or track meet is never easy, but as a coach and track and field official himself, he knew where to go and who to see. He also enlisted a committee of track coaches to help select the Globe’s All-Scholastic teams in cross-country and track.

His work earned him a Special Recognition Award in 1983 from the Massachusetts State Track Coaches Association, and a spot in the track coaches’ hall of fame.

“It was a way of staying close to the sport,’’ said MacAulay about officiating. “I got to enjoy the guys and girls more through the years, and it was more than just a job, it was a pleasure.’’

The writing also served an important purpose. “I’d like to think the publicity helped kids get into college and maybe get some scholarship money.’’

Along with longtime track official and coach Joe Abelon of Lynn, his former teammate at Northeastern, he founded Ab-Mac Finish Line Systems, a chute system that allowed up to 300 runners per minute to be processed at a finish line, far faster than any previous manual system. The system was used for years by the Boston Athletic Association at the finish line of the marathon, before the advent of the computer chips used today.

“This area was really in the forefront of the road racing boom,’’ said MacAulay. “And at the time, there really was no good system for getting results quickly with manual timing. We found a need and we filled it.’’

A Russian delegation came to Boston to study the chute system and that led to Abelon, MacAulay, and fellow official Kevin Uniake working the finish line of the International Peace Marathon in Moscow. It was the first prize money race in Russia just after the former Soviet Union dissolved in 1991 and the largest field at that time in the country for a marathon.

Abelon said the race start - held outside the Olympic Stadium - was an example of smart officiating. While the trio did not understand the announcements made in Russian, they did notice - about 10 minutes before the scheduled start - that there seemed to be a cadence and tempo to the announcer’s words.

“At the end of the cadence, all the runners - more than 10,000 - took off,’’ said Abelon. “The three of us independently started our stopwatches. We soon found out that the announcer was doing a practice countdown for the runners - something you never, ever do - and off they went. We got the start time right and prevented a major embarrassment.’’

“Don was always prepared and alert for the challenges of officiating,’’ said Chris Lane, president of the Mass. track officials. “He could be depended upon to carry out his assignment, and did so working with and mentoring other officials, so that all competitors were respected and treated as winners.’’

One of MacAulay’s most lasting track memories came as a skinny freshman at Commerce High, competing against other freshmen from Boston high schools in the midget relay race during the annual BAA meet at Boston Garden.

“I remember the thrill of running around that track with thousands of people cheering for me,’’ he said. “I think it was then I realized this was something I wanted to stay with.’’

Rich Fahey can be reached at faheywrite@yahoo.com.