Donald H. McLean, Jr: 

as we knew him

Introduction

Frederic A. Stott

On September 16, 1984 in the Cochran Chapel at Phillips Academy, Andover, Theodore R Sizer spoke at the memorial service for Donald H McLean, Jr. concluding, “We were the beneficiaries of the loyalty of a profoundly worthy man." These words, multiplied by those of countless others raised the idea - could we put together the McLean story? would it be worthy?… And, would be readable?

A cautious approach was in order. An often use McLean dictum came to mind, "assemble the facts and they lead you to a sensible conclusion." So I did some assembling, in this case, opinions. Then Martha McLean and her son John offered suggestions as to both topics and authors. The idea of a book held fast, and grew. So did the list of possible authors. And so did my desire to attempt it. Now on a warm May day in 1986, the idea nears reality, and the answers to the question of  “why this book?" are several.

The first reason is that twenty-four different men and women were invited to contribute. Everyone accepted. 

The second is that few men have served society so well in so many different settings. As this informal record unfolds on the pages which follow, it is clear that Donald H McLean Jr. was a generalist of the first order. His intelligence, his training, his sensitivity, his toughness, his principles, his fine judgement, and his enormous inner wish to advance society all combined to make him effective in an incredible array of circumstances.

Don did not start as a generalist. His early years with Milbank, Tweed, after Yale Law School, could easily have been the beginning of a typical successful lawyer’s career  but then came World War II. During those years, people and institutions kept "finding" Don, seeking his counsel and his help. They were many - starting with Gen. Lucius D. Clay and Gen. John Hilldring; later Secretary of State George C Marshall… several educational institutions including Andover, Harvard, and Amherst; medical centers - the Leahy Clinic; the Cleveland Clinic; Overlook Hospital; unusual causes such is the Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge in New Jersey or an international gathering of psychiatrists in Dromoland Castle, Ireland. Even the investment firm of Massachusetts Financial Services in Boston was included. Perhaps, above all, there was John D Rockefeller, 3rd. He found Don too, and had the wisdom to involve him in a far-flung series of ventures in Japan, the Philippines, and India, as well as in the United States.

Don found people as well. In each of the episodes recounted here, it is clear that a partnership existed between the author and Don McLean. It is also clear that there were problems to solve, causes - good sensible human causes - to advance. There were and they did. In the process friendships were formed and knowledge was shared, not only about the situation at hand, but about numerous other endeavors which were all part of the man, his experience, and his accumulating wisdom.

There is a another reason for this volume. As several of the authors state, Don McLean had a deep affection for Andover. Cliff Wharton underscores it with a single phrase, “His beloved Andover."

There'll be an appropriate room bearing McLean’s name in the soon to be renovated Andover library.  In that room there will be copies of this volume. Therefore the hope exists that two or three or four, perhaps even more, of the students who see this book will be moved by these tails to try to advance social ideas or enterprises in a similar manner.

Finally there is a personal reason. I first met Don in 1956 when he joined the Andover Alumni Council. We worked at that, at fundraising, at finding headmasters, at many of the issues which faced him as President of the Board of Trustees. Worked is the right word. Some play too, but always in the context of our common project. I felt very much the older son or the younger brother. Don could be demanding, even steely, and we did fall out on two or three occasions. But we worked back into harness. It was always more important to "get on with it" than to worry about a differing of opinion. He was in truth my mentor and the lessons learned from and with him have shaped many a personal decision.

So during the 30 years of our association I got to "know" many others with whom he had worked - Matsumoto and Deshmukh, Van de Veld and Mosher, Fenske and Abreu and Ravenholt, Palmer and Bowie, Minton and Wharton and many many others. (Almost always it was by the last name only. Only a handful escaped. Moore was always "John Moore”.  Andover trustee Summer Smith was always "Summer Smith". But these were practically the only ones to carry their full name.)

A reading of Sizer or Monroe or the Trustee Resolution or Cooper or Ireland will bear witness to this Andover record. As I wrote in the Andover Bulletin:

Donald H McLean , Jr. was at the center of all policy decisions during the troubling period in the late 60s and early 70s when student unrest was at its height, when Headmaster John Kemper’s fine leadership ended with his death, when acting Headmaster Simeon Hyde, Jr. courageously pushed and pulled the school to through a hectic year of transition, when a new headmaster was urgently sought and Theodore R Sizer was fortunately found. 

These were stressful uncertain years. like the Great Depression, you had to live through them in order to appreciate the tension which existed within and among faculty, students, Trustees, staff, alumni, and parents, let alone the community and the nation. Confidence in management was at a low ebb. It was far easier to clamor than to lead, and people clamored. For the newly elected President of the Board of Trustees it was a stern test.

From that period of trial emerged a stronger Andover. Headmaster Sizer, with Donald McLean at his side, let the Academy through an upswing remarkable by any set of measurements - student applications, faculty recruitment and compensation, student skills evident in the classroom or onstage, the introduction of coeducation with the merger with Abbott Academy, funds contributed in record amounts through the Bicentennial Campaign, and morale steadily on rise in all quarters.

I therefore wanted to tie the Andover record in with many of the other McLean ventures in order to show a reasonably complete whole.

There are two other thoughts to include here.

Any description of Don McLean must also record some of the phrases which were oft-used favorite tools. There were many:

"What is needed is a good staff study."

"Let's established the terms of reference."

"He'll just have to pull up his socks." 

“He’s the the sort of person you can count on when it's snowing outside.”

"Tall elms and green grass.”

"Assemble the facts and they lead you to a successful conclusion.”

“A leader must be able to respond to the reasonable questions of reasonable men women.”

“If you always tell the truth, you never have to remember what you said."

“What man can conceive, man can achieve."

And, at the end of discussion or debate, there was his usual exhortation,

"Let's get on with it."

Good tools they were, used often and well.

Finally, a very special part of working with Don was the informal invitation to be part of his family. Ken Matsumoto has spoken for all of us in his lovely personal essay, ed"Uncle Don." Fritz Allis shows another dimension of the McLean family in his piece, “One tile for the mosaic of the man."

For me 30 years of family friendship with Martha, Donny, Ruthie, John, and Barbie adds a compelling reason for this book. Scatter geographically now from Andover, Massachusetts to Silverton, Oregon, from Portland, Maine to Lincoln, Massachusetts, to Denver, Colorado, they offer a friendship and family unity which is wondrous to witness, even more pleasing to enjoy. Good humored also. They have always been a major part of the McLean story.

For these reasons, therefore, I aimed to tell the story of a uniquely constructive man. Twenty-four men and women have told it.

———————-

In the gathering of these tales I am grateful to many people. First of all to the authors, each of whom responded both to the initial request and often to additional desires for further material or changed emphasis. Humorous moments have been part of this gathering such as the telephone call from John Moore relating the hilarious story of the international psychiatrist in the Irish pub, which tale John put on paper. Or the 3 AM telephone call from Ken Matsumoto in Tokyo who forgot all about the time differential and wanted to be sure I knew his contribution was enroute. Moreover Jim Burke has added a unique touch with his gently good-humored account of a "special" institution at work and play!

Edith S Myers, Don’s secretary who went with him from Socony Mobil to the Rockefeller offices in room 5600, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, has shared many a thought and memory as she always shared her great and quiet skills for all of the McLean projects and people. Not only did she render personal advice, but she has added perspective about the important home office support for many Rockefeller-McLean projects. And she has proofread all these pages.

Arthur Palmer is in another to whom I owe a special gratitude. As a personal undertaking he has gone through many of Don McLean's files, pointed out the important steps taken, and somehow managed to bring together the central elements of Don's widespread World War II service in his essay.

Several individuals in the Andover Office of Academy Resources have made special contributions. Pat Edmonds has known the McLeans for several years and worked with Martha on at least one common project and with me on this book; Joe Mesics became Secretary of the Academy shortly before Don's death, but only after being interviewed by Don; Ann Parks has provided her usual high-quality service in the graphic design of this book; Christine Pool who for years deciphered both me and my penmanship as my secretary has put the entire volume through her typewriter and word processor.

Then there are the Trustees of Phillips Academy. Early in the contemplation of this book, I raised the question of how it might be published and by whom. Without hesitation, Trustee President  Mel Chapin, Senior Trustee Tim Ireland, and Headmaster Don McNemar told me to go to work. It was a generous admonition, and both the tone and the substance were pure McLean advice, "Let's get on with it." It has been a very pleasant mission! 

Beyond what I have already said about Martha there is a special appreciation I feel for her partnership in moving this volume from mere idea to tangible reality. More than anyone else, she identified the areas of Don’s greater interest and the people who could tell all of them. As the contributions arrived I shared them with her, and she displayed wonderful objectivity in leaving the editing to me while at the same time making coaching comments about the flavor or the facts of a given situation.

Finally a word about Fritz Allis. He has really been co-editor. He has read every manuscript, carried out a significant amount of editorial improvement, monitored my grammar, and provided the finest sort of balance. In order to pull these many threads together, I isolated myself for three days in our house and New Hampshire's White Mountains. Time and again I smiled at Fritz’s penned editorial directives, even twice turn to talk or laugh with him about particular points. A professional historian who has both personal feelings for our subject and professional objectivity in the ordering of these papers. In short, a friend.

Now, on with the story.

Frederic A. Stott

Andover Massachusetts

May 1986

Frederick a Stott, Andover, Massachusetts, was closely associated with Don McLean in all his Phillips Academy work 1956 to 1981.

Laughter with - but not at

Clifton R. Wharton, Jr.

I first met Don McLean in 1957. He was working with John D. Rockefeller, 3rd, and I had just joined the Agricultural Development Council, an organization Mr. Rockefeller had set up to strengthen the rural social sciences in Asia. During the early days of our friendship I learned that Don was warm, sincere, direct, honest, and unfailingly courteous with people from all walks of life. I marveled at his unassuming personality and his ability to subordinate his ego within the context of his role. He performed superbly, of course, providing wise counsel and advice at all times.

Over the years, a quality I came to appreciate particularly in Don was his great sense of humor. One of my many wonderful memories is of the story he loved to tell, dating from the early 1960’s. On a flight from United States to Asia, he had a chance to sit next to a new ADC visiting professor who was on his way to his university assignments abroad. The professor did not know Don. For the entire flight, Don quizzed and probed the professor about the Agricultural Development Council. What was it? What would the professor's role be? I can still imagine the twinkle must've brightened his eye: "So you say this is one of those do-gooder organizations of the Rockefeller's? Come on - what are they really up to over there? You don't really expect all this academic bushwah to fill peasants stomachs do you?"

And then how Don must have laughed with - but not at - his new acquaintance when he finally confessed who he was.

Don had an incomparable way with people, along with a knack for getting right to the heart of any problem or issue. Once he had made up his mind about something, he liked to put his decisions into action without delay. I would go to him for advice or to sound him out on some proposal proposed solution to a problem. "Okay, Cliff," he would respond. "Are we buying or selling?” And off we would go on our joint crusade. 

Don was with the "natural aristocracy” -the elite of intelligence, energy, and humaneness. He had several careers - with the ADC, the Population Council, the Asia Society, the Magsaysay Foundation, the Leahy Clinic Medical Center, his beloved Andover. In each he unfailingly distinguished himself. In his quiet way he made the world a little better place to live in. 

As for me, I respected Don’s talents, appreciated his support, treasured his friendship. I am the better for having had the privilege to know and work with him. Like so many others whose lives he touched, I miss Don McLean.

Clifton R. Wharton, Jr. was Vice President of the Agricultural Development Council. He has served on the staffs of several universities and agencies around the world, was President of Michigan State University 1970 - 1978 and since then he has been Chancellor of the 64 campus State University of New York system. He has written and spoken widely, and serves on the boards of several corporations as well as the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Rockefeller Foundation of which he is past Chairman.

Trusteeship…and paying your dues

John U. Monro

In the workaday life of a school or college, trustees are somehow always in the background, behind the scene, dimly perceived by faculty and students, shadowy transient figures that come and go. But trustees can make an enormous difference for good or ill. Trustees decide who will be headmaster or president, and having chosen a head they will back him up in developing and changing the program, monitor closely how things are going, counsel and steer him through major decisions, take issue or urge caution, approve, or suggest other ways to proceed. Trustees are responsible for the hard, detailed work of finances, for helping shape and monitor the budget, and for deciding upon and conducting major fun drives. In days of rapid social, fiscal, and political changes such as our last three decades, trustees, representing the world outside, must bring their outside knowledge to bear on the work and plans of the institution. On major issues trustees, like any strong-minded people, will disagree, often sharply, but for the good of the school they must work together to find consensus on which all can cheerfully agree.

There is no pay for any of this trustee work; It is done out of concern for the institution involved, “non sibi” as our school motto has it. The fact is that trustees are expected to give not only of their time and knowledge, but also of their own substance as a good example to others. And, I have learned over the years there is another element beyond “non sibi" that makes for a good board of trustees, and that is the inspiration one gets from being members of a good team, a successful team that works well together in a worthwhile and demanding institutional effort. Being a member of a great team in a tough game is a rare and ultimately rewarding experience, a joy. 

Donald H McLean was my great mentor and teacher in these matters. He had his own translation of “non sibi” which has haunted and effected my life for thirty years. The way Don put it was, “You pay your dues, meaning each of us owes an enormous debt to the people and institutions that helped to shape us, that we still inhabit and depend on everyday of our lives; and we must never in our time forget to “pay our dues." The value of Don McLean's definition for me, and I expect for others, is that it puts a rational and compelling reason to build the old Latin saw “non sibi" into one's life. It was part of Don McLean's genius to think through complicated ethical and operational problems and translate his conclusions into pithy, workable, earthly metaphors.

I can only begin to sketch here the major elements of change over the past thirty years at Andover in which Donald McLean had a leading role. These were years, as historian Fritz Allis has observed, when Andover "underwent more basic changes then in all its previous history."

Early in his long tenure as Headmaster, John Kemper decided it would add enormously to the strength of the school to build a significant alumni organization and involve its members in the critical business of observing school activities and policies, and giving the management advice. The decision was a major turning point in Andover affairs, and the 1950’s Donald McLean became a leading champion of the plan, one of the first presidents of the new Alumni Council. He and I joined the Charter Trustee group together in 1958 and set together in the far-end freshman seats. I remember well his enthusiasm at the opportunity of bringing new, younger alumni ideas and influence to bear on the Board’s business

Almost at once the board asked Don McLean to direct the huge Andover Program Fund Drive for $7 million to help John Kemper build the new Andover he had in mind, – the new dormitories around Rabbit Pond, the new Evans Science Building, and the Arts and Communication Center linking the museum and the stage in George Washington Hall. The campaign was a demanding three year effort of planning, organizing, and execution, and its success set Andover on its new course for this half-century. I remember that Tim Ireland was McLean's major partner in the alumni section of the drive, and Fred Stott was the key staff person; but Don McLean was the Chief Executive Officer and the chief hitman. And he saw to it that we all “hauled up our socks" and “paid our dues."

In the late 1960’s John Kemper developed two main issues that produced sharp divisions within the Board. He wanted Andover to be out front in joint efforts of the independent schools to provide educational opportunities for black students, and for Andover to direct its own admissions efforts to admit more black students. There were serious reservations within the Board about this proposal, - reservations that the program would be costly, and that it might well bring about a lowering of the schools traditionally high academic standards. That the Board finally reached a consensus to improve and encourage the program owed a great deal to Donald McLean's ability in human relations and one-on-one persuasion.

The most critical division within the board in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s rose on the issue of merging with Abbott Academy. By then the evidence was fairly clear that Andover would follow the national trend and go co-ed. The Abbott trustees could since this possibility for Phillips Academy also, and could foresee the problem such a move would create for Abbott, our neighbor down School Street. Informal conversations began, and John Kemper arrived at the firm conviction that the decent, honorable, gentlemanly course was not the fairly simple one of starting to admit girls to Andover, but the more complex and expensive course of working out a merger between the two schools, thus preserving as much as possible of the identity and tradition of Abbott Academy. Serious members of the board saw no good reason for the merger: it would be a heavy expense on Ancover’s resources, in legal fees and commitments; buildings would require renovation; there would be entanglements of contracts to teachers and staff; and we were under absolutely no legal commitment to Abbott Academy. They saw it as a violation of our fiscal responsibilities as trustees to take on an unnecessary financial and legal burden.

Donald McLean became President of the Board in 1968 and the Abbott issue was certainly the most divisive, difficult, and threatening problem he faced in his new term of responsibility. We did not know it then, but John Kemper had three years to live, and for much of the time he was in failing health. The Board’s division was not resolved; in fact, it hardened, though there was obvious pressure to reach a decision as soon as possible. Donald McLean supported John Kemper’s view, but needed a Board consensus; so the discussions went on, but the vote was postponed, deferred, put off. After John Kemper died, the disagreement and postponements went on for yet another year during Simeon Hyde’s interim tour as Acting Headmaster. 

Meanwhile we looked for a new Headmaster and in 1972 appointed Ted Sizer. His first task was to resolve the Abbott merger  problem, and he set about it with directness, energy, and sense. In his first meeting with us In July 1972, a special meeting of the Board, Sizer stated that it was his clear preference that coeducation be achieved by merging with Abbott. He further crisply outlined a series of steps to be followed which would complete the merger within a year. This intelligent, confident, evaluation was evidently the voice we had all been waiting for. We looked at one another, in relief. Nobody in the room was of a mind to tell this new this able new young Headmaster “no" to his first proposal. So Donald McLean then and there put the question and got the unanimous vote he had waited three years for.

When we acknowledge and cheer the result, we need to remember who it was that kept the issue alive through three agonizing years, who set up the search committee that found in nominated Ted Sizer, who briefed Sizer on the tangled ins and outs of the Abbott issue, and who scheduled a special July meeting so that we could settle the matter, and " get along with it." The happy scenario did not happen by accident. It took a lot of hard thought, and sense, and courage, and doing. And Donald McLean did it.

We all tend to think of Ted Sizer’s nine years at Andover as "glory" years in the life of the school, years of the successful transition to coeducation for student body, faculty, and staff, and with that the incredible transformation of a tough, old, male school; years of the extraordinary Bicentennial Celebration, and it's $52 million fund raising effort; years of an unimaginable expansion of course offerings that would be of interest to both faculty and students; years of academic explorations with short term institutes for high school students and the model M S Squared program for minority students to help them prepare for college; culminating in the selection of Donald and Bridget McNemar to step in confidently and well to carry forward the good work. 

Sizer years, to be sure, but to me these the great years of Sizer and McLean: the Headmaster with an educated genius for working with adolescents, gifted teacher and administrator, with a brisk style of intelligent, infectious, competent optimism; a Headmaster backed up at every turn, advised, prodded, cautioned, encouraged, and supported by the President of the Board, who was a superb judge of people and situations, who kept in touch day in and day out, issue after issue, with his fellow members of the Board, who knew how to state the issue before us, when to put the issue and when to delay it, and finally who somehow knew how to pull the Board of Trustees together as a team, a successful team in the great" worthy" enterprise, a joy to belong to and serve.

Donald McLean gave each of us a living model of what it means to "pay our dues."

John U. Monroe has been a trustee of Phillips Academy since 1957. A writer and educator he was Dean of Harvard College until 1967. Since then he has taught at Miles College and Tougaloo College. He has received honorary degrees from 12 colleges and universities.

A balance of ends and means

John L. Cooper

As President of the Andover Board of Trustees, Don flourished especially in the after-dinner gatherings in his suite at the Andover Inn where, with a glass in hand, he could corner those with a special interest in a given subject and work out a plan for putting across the proper program. He was most in his element when he could talk confidentially to the key people involved in any decision. What he liked was to get things completed once it became clear that a consensus with a reasonable majority of support has been attained. He liked the decisions to be reached first, if possible, by those members of the board who had the most reason to be interested and informed on the subject at hand. Ted Sizer described this best as, “his nicely balanced mixture of well-defined ends and carefully crafted means.” His method of operation worked well, except for the occasional frustrations of those board members who had not been present in the Inn and who arrived at the meeting the following morning to find a fait accompli in an area where they were prepared to launch a learned discourse.

In private conversations our female colleagues were "dollies" to Don. This was just an easy, short form way of referring to ladies, all of whom he liked. Anyone who was misinformed on a subject, especially those who did not share McLean's opinion, was "out to lunch on this one." On one occasion when the merger of Phillips Academy and Abbott Academy was being implemented, one or two "dollies" with intense feelings got into the subject of female representation on the Board of Phillips Academy. They took an extended lunch break on this one, with our President as the focus of their fears about future board discrimination against the Abbot constituency. Don waited patiently, but in vain, for some sort of group opinion to evolve; as our leader he was under siege and beginning to be visibly discomfited. This offered me an opportunity to try to accomplish something which I thought needed doing. I felt that we could make greater use of the Board’s standing committees, especially the nominating committee. The long discussion of future female representation seemed to me to present an opportunity to put the nominating committee to work, as well as to come to the rescue of our embattled standard-bearer. Accordingly, I moved that he refer the matter to the nominating committee. He excepted immediately, with profuse thanks. Over the next couple of years he frequently thanked me for the idea. I thought I had converted him into a regular use of the committee and congratulated myself on introducing a major advance in the governance of the Academy. Then one day, after thanking me one more time for rescuing him, he added, "of course, I had no intention of doing what you suggested. I expected to solve the matter in my own way. But you certainly got me off the hook at that terrible time."

Don was a straight thinker, and for this reason he became a Director of the mutual funds managed by Massachusetts Financial Services Company, where I spent most of my business life. His long and varied legal and business experience did not provide him with an especial interest in individual investments but, just as at Andover, he had an instinct for making sure that someone was doing the right things. As he attained some seniority he quietly assumed the position of spokesman for the “outside directors," those not part of the management. In 1982 Massachusetts Financial Services Company was sold to sun Life Assurance Company of Canada. The transfer of ownership requires the acquiescence of the outside directors of the funds and, as might be expected, these independent minded individuals did not all arrive at parallel conclusions at the same time. This provided the stuff of which McLean’s favorite playing turf was made. It was quite characteristic of Don that he saw this as an interesting challenge and he said to the Chairman of MFS, “I will have to decide how to go about bringing this off.” It was probably not the issue of the sale itself that interested him as much as how to produce a consensus that satisfied everyone.

Don was a "good" man who knew and appreciated the virtues that constituted successful living with one's fellow human beings, but he was not a formalist. He was a practical man and, happily, had a proper touch of wry amusement about his world. In his last months his wife, Martha, adjusted that it would be welcome if he could continue to receive the written material sent to Directors before each monthly meeting. One day when the envelope arrived, he said her her: "It certainly is wonderful to get some mail seeking my advice and counsel, in addition to the notes saying someone is praying for me."

John L Cooper was President and/or Chairman of Massachusetts Financial Services Company Boston, and a Trustee of Phillips Academy. He also served as President of the Trustees of Mount  Holyoke College and as a Trustee of Massachusetts General Hospital.

A Fellow Trustee

R.L. Ireland

As is the case case with so many Andover students a number of years went by before I became re-involved with the school. My first Alumni Council meeting was the occasion, and it was one Donald H McLean, Jr. who made a lasting impression on me. He had been a principal architect of this very important body of alumni that has not been existence prior to World War II.

On a gray, cool autumn morning in the 1950s, a middle-aged vibrant Don McLean stood modestly in the corner of a Morse Hall classroom addressing a large committee. Of course, it was a thrill to return to the beautiful campus, but it was the presence of this intelligent, dedicated man, delivering a thoughtful report on a subject that I have long forgotten, that I remember so vividly.

Even then he spoke carefully, in measured words with calculated cadence, a direct look in deep, searching eyes. As was the case throughout his life, he had something to say. Don was not mesmerized by the sound of his own voice, and when he took the time of a group or an individual, his message had been thoroughly weighed. It was readily apparent to a newcomer that this friendly, yet reserved, man was to become an important influence on Phillips Academy.

During the 1958 to 1961 Andover Program fund-raising campaign he was a delight to work for and with. He was the overall chairman. I was the alumni chairman. He provided all-essential quality of leadership to the effort. There were moments of elation, frustration and even despair during that campaign, but Don never gave up and even the dark moments he managed to see the lighter and humorous side of situations on so many occasions I can remember him breaking into that familiar broad smile and uttering the McLean trademark - "Let's get on with it."

Every fundraising campaign must have one large donor, and Don and I were in hopes that Thomas Mellon Evans might fill the bill. We were having difficulty setting up a meeting with Tom, and one Saturday afternoon while watching an Andover football game, we plotted an approach. The following day we were getting a lift from the Westchester County Airport which was not far from Tom's Greenwich home. So we decided to pay a visit without an appointment in the hope of catching him in a relaxed weekend mood. Uneasy about the wisdom of our surprise visit, we drove up to the Evans beautiful house on Round Hill Road, rang the bell, and were greeted by a ferocious barking, and eventually a non-English-speaking downstairs maid. Dedication to our task gave us the courage to stand there in spite of the two guard dogs and attempt to understand the maid over the din. "The Evans know home." We had taken a calculated risk. Had he been home, Tom might have resented the call. On the other hand, he might very well have made his extremely generous gift right then and there instead of later. We will never know, but this adventure typifies the kind of bold step that we occasionally took. And spite of the heart-pounding, we both derived some fun out of our audacious caper.

We served together as Charter Trustees at Phillips Academy for more than a quarter of a century and during that span of time we live through a number of demanding situations. One of the pleasures of working closely with him was the opportunity to watch his mind work. He loved the challenge of mental exercise,  yet he enjoyed the execution of a decision just as much. He understood compromise and knew the importance of having the votes. At Trustee meetings he was a firm believer in bringing up the controversial agenda items on Friday and then having the important luxury of the “smoke filled room” procedure that night before resolving the matter on Saturday morning. Don invariably provided the voice of reason and moderation.

Twenty-one Charter Trustees retired during our years together and the selection of new Trustees was always a serious business. In 1963 there were two vacancies, and we held the customary Thursday night dinner of charter trustees at the Lanam Club. Although considerable groundwork  had been accomplished in advance, there were differing ideas, I particularly recall the issues involving Steve Horn and Bill Bender. Steve had been an Alumni Trustee for three years, but at that juncture he was sixty-five (which would allow him only five years in service), and the emphasis was on selecting younger men. This champions we're holding hard, contending that a total of eight years was a worthwhile span. Bill Bender was not an alumnus but his long involvement with the school as a teacher and Johnny Kemper’s reliance on him as an educational sounding board were evident. His credentials as Dean of Harvard were also a plus! While I was chairman of the Nominating Committee, it was with Don McLean's considerable help that we affected a compromise which elected to the board the first non-alumnus in over 50 years, and the first 65-year-old! Don loved to play these very important games and he played them well.

Still another side of him was demonstrated at the time of Johnny Kemper's death. Our long-time Headmaster has been suffering from terminal cancer for several months, and there were strong differences of opinion among the Trustees as to whether his successor should come from within the school or from outside. As President of the Trustees, Don called a special meeting at the Century Club in New York City where we were faced with one of the most important decisions within our purview - the choosing of a new leader, and by what process. The telephone wires to Andover were crackling. Simeon Hyde was appointed the Acting Headmaster. It was also directed to appoint a Search Committee to look into candidates from the faculty as well as the educational world and other walks of life. After all, our predecessors had chosen a West Pointer noted more for his ability to manage people than his educational experience. The point is that Don took hold. He stepped to the wicket - cool, very much in charge, patient as the many suggestions of how to proceed to poured fourth, and finally, crisp and decisive. As a result the search committee was given a broad mandate, but a tight deadline

Whether moderating a difficult discussion, selecting the right person for the position, or seeking funds for Andover, Don took on the central issue with logic, a compelling desire for successful resolution… and an ample dash of good humor.

R. L,  Ireland III joined the Board of Trustees of Phillips Academy in 1960 and thereafter was closely associated with Don McLean in the Academy’s affairs. He was a partner of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., New York.

He gloried in the tactics of a worthwhile cause

Theodore R. Sizer

“Meet me at the Club,” he’d say; and a luncheon date and time would be set. Earlier, when Don was at the Lahey Clinic in Boston, the “Club” had in fact been Joseph’s Restaurant, on the corner of Dartmouth and Newbury Streets. Later it was the Andover Inn.

A splash of wine would start it off, and stories. About General Lucius D. Clay for whom Don worked after the War and whom he admired more than any other man. Or about the Ramon Magsaysay awards that he had engineered in the Philippines. Or about the politics of Massachusetts medicine. Whatever the intended agenda, institutional or personal, it would come out gradually, Don sensing just when to get on with that particular business. The talk would be easy, but direct, with Don’s Yale Law School and Millbank, Tweed training creeping out with apt questions, always interspersed with more anecdotes. Henry Stimson. Amherst College fraternities. Potton, the McLean sanctuary in Quebec. Agriculture and population policy in the Third World. Doshisha University and Otis Cary. The Overlook Hospital in Summit, New Jersey, John Kemper.

Then more questions. What will happen if…? Do we know enough about…? Have you checked this with Mel and Tim? Is Fred doing a study on that? By desert, the questions would merge into advice, and the language used was plain, even tart. They can’t do that because it’s unworthy. He’ll just have to pull his socks up. Don’t take a lead of first until you know where second base is.

The issues would take form, but their specifics were left deliberately dangling. Don gave his lunch mate the gratification of the final summary. Then Henry would bring coffee, and more stories would follow. And always there was the warm expectation of another luncheon soon at the Club.

Donald Holman McLean, JR. Son of a Congressman and Judge, he cared about getting things done. Weather the matter was as subtile as delineating the functions of an occidental International Hose in an oriental land or as politically Byzantine as moving a large medical facility from one city to another, Don gloried in the tactics of a worthwhile cause. Careful control of the facts was part of it; he learned well the virtues of thorough staff studies in his years of association with John D. Rockefeller, 3rd.

Knowing the people involved was equally critical. Don cared passionately for institutions, but he knew well that they were at their center both a cluster of ideas and a congeries of people, and that institutional decisions would ultimately be made by those peoples’ hearts as well as heads. One needed to know how others felt as well as thought.

Timing was also crucial in McLean’s repertoire. He knew when it was time to do a year’s work in a month, or let what appeared to be a simple issue marinate for weeks, off to the side even if not forgotten.

These tactics were but a means, of course. The ends were the key. Support of the institutions which were the focus of Don’s life became (albeit in a strongly secular sense) a holy purpose. No institution was holier than that of family, and while Don kept his privacy here, his friends readily sensed his intense commitment to wife, children, and grandchildren, to roots, to obligations. His marriage with Martha - two vivid personalities in serene and secure joining - was very special. However family customs may shift in our culture, the loyal vitality lived out by Don and Martha expresses humanity at its best. 

Don’s loyalty and persistent persuasiveness affected other institutions too. Some were primarily ideas, such as a worthy American role in postwar Germany and a philanthropy that served a global public interest. Others were formal entities as well as ideas - the Lahey Clinic, Amherst College, Phillips Academy.

No person could care more for the place where we now gather than did Don. He cared enough for Andover to change it, to change its form while he protected it substance, the ideas at its core. The founders ideology - a "free, public school or academy," and especially that imbedded in the Paul Revere motto, “non sibi,” - was the constant. Don't felt that the true loyalist obligation was to fashion and refashion a contemporary expression of an enduring, noble ideology. In many ways Don's memories, his history, shaped his character. He talked often of the past, and especially of the men and women who had moved him. But he never became their prisoners. 

And so we hope it will be for us, Don McLean’s lunch mates, his friends and family. His nicely balanced mixture of well-defined ends and carefully crafted means and his witness to loyalty - loyalty whose restless quality was a virtue - he touched us greatly. For us he was a great man. He had Lucius Clay; we have Don to claim.

He'll be uneasy with that word “great," though. To him it would sound too rigid, too Napoleonic. The better word which crap most often across the lunch table was the term "worthy." A worthy idea. A worthy person, someone up to the standard of the idea to which loyalty was expected. Don would have us be worthy, and our lives were changed because we wanted him to find us worthy. We knew, at those lunch table talks and elsewhere, that we were the beneficiaries of the loyalty of the profoundly worthy man.

Theodore R Sizer was headmaster a Phillips Academy in the 1970s. He had been Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Chairman of a" Study of High Schools," and the author of numerous articles and books.

A Resolution

Trustees of Phillips Academy

Be it resolved that the Trustees record their deep respect for the leadership, the wisdom, and the unswerving loyalty of Donald H McLean Jr. Graduate of Phillips Academy, Special Assistant to General Lucius D. Clay in the military occupation of Germany after World War II, counselor to John D Rockefeller, 3rd, and leader of the Lahey Clinic, he also fashioned a distinctive career as an Andover alumnus,  Alumni Councillor, campaign chairman, trustee, and President of the Board of Trustees. It is the latter role which we would address in this resolution.

He treated this body and its individual members with equal parts of serious respect and good humor. He thought of us as the members of a club, a club whose sole duty was the discharge of trusteeship in an intelligent, conscientious, and consistent manner. But it was a club whose responsibilities included pleasure along with duty - the pleasure of friendship, the pleasure of place, the pleasure of the Andover Inn as Trustee "territory", the pleasure of come camaraderie cum responsibility.

For each of us he had a word, a quick comment, a smile or a stern gaze (often both), a thoughtful query, usually ending with a hearty “let's get on with it!".

For each of us he had a name, invariably the last name. It was always Ireland, Meyer, Gage, Monro, Gelb, Stevens, Cooper, Kimball, Allen, Piel, Sizer, Chapin, Boeschenstein et al. The only one who escaped was Sumner Smith who either carried both his names or simply “Sumner". "Smith" alone lack proper identity!

We had our mission: to oversee the management of Phillips Academy; to select its leader with the utmost care, and then to back that leader under all conditions; to invest wisely in the schools material resources of money, buildings and land; to contribute generously our time, assets, and judgment; and finally to select successor trustees with the same care exercised in the selection of the headmaster. We recall with a smile his great pleasure when Mssrs. Beinecke and Wyman were elected, the final two during his time as president.

Process was important to him. Split votes were contrary to the basic trustee premise of loyalty to Academy and headmaster. Not that this body lacked for strongly held opinions often at variance with each other. But, such occasions called for patience, for taking out the issue in public and private, for seeking and securing consensus… and then for the casting of the vote.

Finally there was the test of trustee fibre. Don often described a good person as "someone you can count on when it's snowing outside".  No description could apply more accurately to him. And for some of us there was no stormier moment at Phillips Academy than when the transition from Headmaster Kemper to hHeadmaster Sizer coincided with the great national unrest over the American role in Vietnam. For more than two years Don McLean was the principle guide of the Academy. Not that he took over the daily management in any sense. Rather he saw that trust was properly placed, that those entrusted were surely backed, that consideration of the critical issue of the day (coeducation) was not neglected, and that the search for Andover’s twelfth headmaster was skillfully conducted. Advice on the governance of the Academy, often in the form of demands, came from many sources. All were heard. But when the time for decision arrived, it was the Board of Trustees, and only the Trustees, who rightfully exercised that power. 

In recognition of his is great contributions to the school and to our trustee body, we speak also of his partner and our friend Martha. Never did we gather at Andover, that her presence was not felt. Further, we knew that her concern for the best interest of Phillips Academy did not start and stop with trustee meetings. Ted Sizer spoke truly when, at Don's memorial service, he said “ His marriage with Martha – two vivid personalities in serene and secure joining - was very special. However family customs may shift in our culture, the loyalty lived out by Don and Martha expresses humanity at its best.

Our academy is the stronger, the wiser, the more worthy for the life and service of Donald H. McLean, Jr.

One tile for the mosaic of the man

Frederick S. Allis, Jr.

Is difficult to write about Don McLean because he was a many-faceted man. I have, personally, a whole kaleidoscope of memories of him: Don chairing the meeting; Don as a host of a Celtics basketball game in a private box loaned him by a friend; Don as “seigneur” of his Canadian estate; Don concerned about some individual and his problems in the Andover community; Don  as a loyal Amherst alumnus; and Don in his countless other roles that I have only heard about. 

I prefer recall one single quality of his that may provide one tile for the mosaic of the men. Quite by chance I had several opportunities to observe his role as a parent, and I suggest that his achievements in this role, though undramatic when compared with many of his other accomplishments, were equally outstanding. I suppose that some may think it presumptuous of me to write about Don as a parent, it should be one of his children, they might say. On the contrary, I believe that if a relative outsider  could be impressed with Don’s role as a parent, that would argue that his achievement in this area was all the greater. 

The first example of Don's acting as a superior parent that I remember came when his older son, Donny, was ready to go to secondary school. As an Andover graduate and loyal alumnus, Don naturally would have been pleased to have Donnie go to Phillips Academy. But unlike some alumni, he had no desire to ram Donnie down Phillips Academy's throat, nor Phillips Academy down Donnie’s throat. The boy was doing well at junior high school and had reservations about private schools in general. After seeing Phillips Academy, he asked if that was the only school available. Don said no and proceeded to take him to see Deerfield. After his return from Deerfield. Donny told his father that the school had a "homey" quality that he liked and that Mr. Boyden reminded him of his grandfather. Andover had a lot good qualities at the time but it certainly was not "homey". Further discussion convinced Don that Deerfield was the place for his son, and the boy accordingly enrolled there and had a happy and successful secondary school experience. When I consider the number of unhappy experiences that I had as a teacher over the years dealing with alumni sons who had been shoe-horned into Andover against their own wishes or against the schools advice, I give Don top marks for not allowing his own desires to interfere with what proved to be the best secondary education for his son.

I can be much less precise about another example of Don as a good parent because I know about it only from conversations with Don and Martha. This concerned Don’s elder daughter Ruthie who had a severe reading disability - a problem that was not discovered until she was in fifth grade. Don first took her out in public school and sent her to a private one. He told me that he gave his school plenty of time to find a program that would help his daughter - he was always  fastidious about interfering with someone else's operation without solid proof that it was not working - but finally came to the conclusion that the school was not going anywhere with Ruthie. So he went to the Dean of Hunter College for advice. She recommended one-on-one sessions with a gifted psychologist who specialized in children with reading problems. There followed a grinding series of sessions - every Saturday for two years - that meant Don or Martha driving Ruthie to New York, waiting for her for two hours, and then driving her back. This program was followed the next summer buy one at the New York University Reading Institute that involved Don's taking his daughter with him to New York every day for two months. Since the rest of the family were away, the two spent their evenings on vocabulary and sentence structure. Finally, the following winter, came another series of sessions in New York to prepare for the SAT’s. As a result of these demanding programs Ruthie was able to enter Wheelock College, to graduate, and to take up the career she had her heart set on - that of a primary school teacher. Here I was impressed by Don’s determination to overcome a puzzling and challenging problem by devoting an enormous amount of time so as to make possible for his daughter the career she had wanted above all others.

There was a time, however, when I could observe Don's parenting at first hand. This happened when I worked with his younger son John during his first year at Andover. John was affable, outgoing, and relaxed; everyone seemed to like him, and he appeared to have adjusted easily and happily at Andover. But there was one difficulty. Despite his success in other areas, he was having trouble academically, and when things did not improve after two terms, I was invited to see what I could do.

And so it was that during some lovely spring evenings in the early 1960’s John used used to trudge up from Junior House, where he lived, to Ferrar House where I lived. Since my family was charging around on the first floor, John and I used to repair to a second floor bedroom and confer there. As the spring war on, I became very fond of John and actually looked forward to his visits. It soon became clear that John was not stupid; he simply could not bring himself to get something all right. If there were ten forms in the Latin declination, John would get nine right; ditto for five out of six conjugation forms. I tried cajolery, threats, shaming him, and getting moralistic, but John remained as friendly and pleasant as ever. I remember once giving him a drill in reading paragraphs and then giving me the the main thought. John claimed one of them did not have a main thought. I told him that was absurd, that the paragraph had been written by an experienced teacher, and that he should get back on the stick and read more carefully. Eventually he challenged me to find the main thought and I was forced to admit I could not find one either. In fact, I could not find any thought!

While John and I were working together, Don kept his distance. He never interfered or told me what to do. From time to time I would report to him on our progress or lack of it. While he was always interested, again he never interfered. He made it clear that he wanted John held up to exacting standards but that he was not going to disown him if these standards were not immediately met. By the end of the spring we had made some progress but still had a long way to go. I told don that i thought he would have to be patient with John, that he was probably a "late bloomer," but that in time he would make a perfectly satisfactory record. Don accepted my advice, and I was happy to see that my predictions were eventually realized as John graduated from Andover, did a stint in the Marine Corps, graduated from Harvard, and has gone on to have a distinguished career in business. Throughout all this I was impressed by the way Don never let his obviously deeply-felt concern for his son interfere with John's chance to develop on his own.

Martha McLean summed up Don's performance as a parent when she said to me, “Whenever one of the children had a problem, Don dropped everything to deal with it.” I know of few parents about whom such a statement could be made.

Frederic S. Allis was Chairman of the Department of History and Social Sciences at Phillips Academy, Andover, 1969-1979. Longtime member of the Andover faculty, he is the author of “Youth From Every Quarter," the Bicentennial history of the Academy.

Pulling up your socks

Raymond A. Lamontagne

Maybe one can gain some insight into the way Don McLean lived his life by the way he prepared for his death.

I visited Don at the Lahey Clinic at a time when we both knew that not much time was left. I found him sitting on the edge of his hospital bed pulling up his socks. I teased him about that because "pulling up one's socks" was always one of Don's favorite expressions. I helped him to a chair in the corner of his room and we sat and talked.

Our first subject was the Boston Red Sox. We agreed that they badly needed some pitching, that Rice just didn't seem to hit in the clutch, and that there was a lack of leadership from top management.

“Well, how are you?" I finally said.

"Just fine." Said Don."You know that I know all the key players here so that they take good care of me."

"I know," I said. Don has become president of the Lahey Clinic when it was located in a row of run-down, overcrowded brownstones in downtown Boston. He had led the effort to locate and build a modern, efficient facility just off route 128 in which he was now a patient.

“Is there anything I can do to help? Im not supposed to stay too long.”

"I think everything is under control. Chapin’s doing a good job. He gets along with the Abbots and that’s important. McNemar is getting the hang of the place and I think he’ll do just fine. They’ve kept me in touch. Anyway, Stott always lets me know what's going on. By the way, how do you think your boy Mesics is doing?"

"Fine," I said, knowing that Don was telling me that he was very pleased with how he was leaving things at Andover but that now it was time for me and others like me to pay attention.

"Did you know that I received a draft of a new book on John, 3rd?”

"Yes, I did too. What did you think?"

"I think it's pretty good. I made some notes on some things that they got mixed up on but, on the whole, I thought they did a good job. You know, the Population Council, the ADC, and the JDR 3rd Fund are all in good shape. I think that Blanchette is doing a good job seeing to it that John's responsibilities to these organizations are being met."

“I know,” I responded. I was familiar with the fact that Don’s work with John D. Rockefeller, 3rd had resulted in a number of creative organizations doing important work in fields ranging from population, to public service, to agricultural development, to the arts, and to Asian-American relations.

"How are Martha and the kids?" I asked.

"The kids are all doing well," Don responded with deep satisfaction. They have all checked in. John's been a big help with the insurance. It helps having one of the troops know what that's all about. I reviewed everything with him and with Martha. They all know what to do."

"Well, I guess I better be going. I stayed much longer than I should have." 

I got up to go and Don started to get up as well.

"Please stay put. I can find my own way out. You know, Don, you and I have never been much for sharing our emotions, I just want you to know, man-to-man, that I love you."

Don reached out his hand and said, “Help me get up. I want to walk with you at least as far as I can which will probably be the nurse’s station. I don't think I can go any further."

He was telling me goodbye as only McLean could say it. He was also responding to my expressions of affection for him in the only way he knew how.

We walked together as far as the nurse’s station and I continued down the corridor to the elevator and turned back. There was don standing by the nurse’s station and I continued down the corridor to the elevator and turned back. There was Don standing by the nurse’s station. His shoulders were squared and his head was held high. I bent over and pulled up my socks knowing that he could still see me. I only hope that he didn't see my tears.

Raymond A. Lamontagne was associated with Don McLean in the affairs of Phillips Academy, holding several key positions in alumni activities and capital campaigns. He also served as an associate to John D. Rockefeller, 3rd. He played a leading role in the early years of the Peace Corps.

Appendix

Chronology

DONALD H. MCLEAN, JR.

November 12, 1910, born, Elizabeth, New Jersey

1916 – 26    Pingry School

1926 – 28    Phillips Academy, Andover

1928 – 32    Amherst College, B. A.

1932 – 35    Yale University, L.L.B.

1939            Married Martha Lamb, Stansted, Québec.  

                    Children: Donald (1941), Ruth (1944), John (1947), Barbara (1953).

1935 – 36    Attorney, Reconstruction Finance Corporation 

                    Admitted to practice of law: 

                    U.S. District Court & Circuit Court of Appeals (1936); 

                    U.S. Supreme Court (1941); 

                    New York Court of Appeals (1948);

                    Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (1975).

1936 - 38     Attorney, Milbank, Tweed, Hope and Hadley, New York and                                                 Washington, DC 

1940            Co-author with Francis T Christie,"The Transfer of Stock" 

1942            Enlisted, U.S. Army, serving with the International Division    

                    (Washington), Joint Chiefs of Staff (Policy Division), Military Governor of 

                    Germany. Final rank, Lt.Col. Awards: Legion of Merit (1945); Oak Leaf   

                    Cluster (1946).

1947            Consultant on occupation problems for Department of State (on leave from                           Milbank, Tweed)

1948            Consultant on foreign affairs to the “Commission on Reorganization of                                 Executive Branch of Government” (Hoover Commission). 

                    Author, “Experts to Run European Recovery Program,” New York Times                               Magazine. 

1948 – 51    Counsel, Socony Vacuum Oil Company, Inc.

Associate, John D Rockefeller, 3rd (1951– 65)

1952            Population Council incorporated

1952            International House of Japan incorporated

1952            Rockefeller Public Service Awards established, Princeton University

1953            Counsel on Economic and Cultural Affairs Incorporated

1956            English Language Education Council ELEC) established, Japan

1958            Raymon Magsaysay Awards established, Philippines

1962            Agricultural Development Council established
                    JDR, 3rd Fund established

1962            Opening, India International Centre, New Delhi

Lahey Clinic Foundation

1964            Elected trustee

1965            Elected President

1971            Land acquired, Burlington, Massachusetts, for Lahey Clinic

1974            Groundbreaking for new Lahey Clinic

Phillips Academy, Andover

1956            Elected member Alumni Council

1957 – 58    President, Alumni Council

1958            Elected Charter Trustee

1959 - 61    President, Board of Trustees

Other

1948 – 65   Vice Chairman, Visiting Committee Graduate School of Public                                              Administration, Harvard University

1950 – 56   Officer and Director, Metropolitan New York Council, American Youth                                Hostels,Inc

1955 – 60   Trustee, President, Overlook Hospital, Summit, New Jersey 

1956– 65    Trustee, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio

1964           Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge established

1974 – 82    Director, Massachusetts Financial Services, Co.

1977            Honorary L.L.D., Amherst College

September 12, 1984, died, Burlington, Massachusetts