The only young Republican we knew

Gerhard A. Gesell

We first met at Andover and came together again at Yale Law School in 1932. He had not followed the usual track to become what he called a “Boola Boola Boy.” At law school we belonged to Corbey Court, met girls, drank some applejack and needle beer, played cards, went to movies, and struggled with the law. It was a serene and privileged time. Graduation from Law School in 1935 brought us face to face with reality - the depression, bread lines, few if any legal jobs.

We both had a little "pull" where it counted in Washington and luckily we got work there, Don at the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and I at the Securities and Exchange Commission.  We rented a basement apartment on 19th Street, NW, just north of Pennsylvania Avenue.  It had a small fenced yard and was dark, relatively cool, and affordable.  We were each earning $2,000 a year. 

It is difficult to describe those early days. I was a "New Dealer." Don was a Republican.  We saw each other intermittently, except at breakfast.  Many nights one or both of us worked, as many young lawyers usually did in those days, and we were at our offices Saturdays and occasionally Sundays.  Don was one of the best breakfast companions I have ever known. The other was our Andover classmate Tom Mendenhall.

We would take off from the morning newspapers, each scoffing at a favorite phony. If I took after one of Don's heroes of the moment, I was in danger!

Life was simple.  The trolley car tool us everywhere, even into the country for picnics featuring watermelon soaked in gin.  At many such gatherings Don was the focus of attention, a rare phenomenon - the only young Republican we knew.  He took the joshing well and held his own although always outnumbered.  We went together to important Congressional debates, courtesy of his father, a Republican Congressman; attended some major Supreme Court arguments, and both shared many new acquaintances.  In a bit over a year I got married.  Not long after, Don brought Martha to Washington. Peg and Martha each approved of both of us and we went on.

Don was a friend for keeps. If you liked him - and who couldn’t - and he liked you - he was selective - there could never be a gap in your friendship. Later, even if several years had passed and we came together again, it was if we had seen each other the day before. Ours was a solid friendship that grew as our paths crossed and recrossed over the years after he left Washington to try his luck in New York. It was his loyalty, his consistency, his unfailing good humor, his curiosity and interest in peopled events that made it so natural and enjoyable to be together at any time.

Don was not given to argument in any depth. Rather he would use a quip, a sally, a few words. You knew where he stood but all the reasons remained submerged. He was always his own man. All his life he grew, and more and more he revealed in being useful. He never let his high standards slip. It was his innate integrity that drew others to him and made him so effective.

Gerhard A. Gesell ]r, Washington, DC, was an Andover and Yale Law School classmate on Don McLean’s, as well as Don’s roommate in Washington, DC after law school. He was a United States District Judge, appointed in 1968, after practicing law for many years. Prior to going on the Court he also served on several important governmental or congressional committees. Mr. Gesell came to national prominence presiding over a number of landmark cases including Watergate, Iran-contra, the legalization of abortion, and the release of the top-secret Pentagon Papers, 

His comment upon giving a lenient sentence to Oliver North, “I believe you still lack understanding of how the public service has been tarnished. Jail would only harden your misconceptions." 

McClure

J. Alfred Guest 

McClure was a pragmatist, with a good mind, a sense of humor, and an engaging laugh. McClure? I do not know where Donald H. McLean, Jr. acquired this name, but I believe it started at Yale Law School. There is a small group of Don's friends who often used “McClure,” including Martha when she talked with us

My first experience with Don’s sureness and compassion goes back 55 years when Don was on the Committee of Seven at Amherst College. This committee was selected by the president and the Dean to supervise and administer compliance with the rules of the college, not always written down. The Committee, with the aid of the Dean, of which there was only one in those days, assessed violations of conduct and recommended “punishment," a form of supervision not tolerated in modern times. Don made the Committee of Seven function efficiently and fairly.

At Yale Law School Don's qualities ascertaining the fax, His friendliness, And easy conversation with both faculty and his contemporaries quickly led to his acceptance into the law school community and if you would into the selective beauty organization known as Corby Court. Until Don's arrival, not many small college graduates have penetrated this club. Thanks to his influence I was fortunate to be invited to join in the next year when I followed him to yell while school. Corporate court provided a setting for stimulating discussions of legal and world problems, and also for stimulating, often hilarious, parties on football and Derby day weekend.

We enjoyed it heartily supported the courtship of Donna and Martha. We attended their wedding at Martha's home in Canada on September 1, 1939 plunged into World War II after the Nazis invaded Poland.

McClure’s further experiences in law, banking, and wartime service followed. We kept in touch, with visits to Don and Martha second-floor $60 a month walk up to New York City. And the war years I had occasion to spend overnights at their home in Washington DC. I remember that breakfast started with a small orange cut in two, and a spoon to complete the difficult and slightly splattering task for the uninitiated. It was a proper Canadian wartime measure in the days before frozen juices

Our contacts thereafter were less, as careers changed and children multiplied. But we shall never forget the stories of Don and Martha’s trip to the Orient with Mr. and Mrs. John D Rockefeller, III including Phnom Penh, Saigon, Tokyo, and New Delhi and their survey of sites to establish an International House in Tokyo and the International Centre In New Delhi. This trip brought innumerable Japanese visitors to the McLean's, and once, in sufficient numbers so that Barbie, their youngest child, had to sleep in the linen closet. Years later my note to Don about our own proposed world trip in 1984, led to our staying at the handsome International Centre with the advantages of a fine dining room, library, and theater. 

Don't could always be counted on to respond promptly to a question or request. He did not put these on ice. Again, this sureness, pragmatism, humor, and compassion were at hand. And after his outstanding careers Don’s alma mater, Amherst College, in 1977 conferred upon him an honorary Doctor of Laws which read in part,

Through all this, you have kept firmly in view first things first in your rich family life as husband and father. You once said of someone you admire, and we would like to give your very words of praise of you, “You are a man one can count on when it's snowing outside".

J. Alfred Guest, Amherst, Massachusetts, was a close friend of Don McLean at both Amherst and Yale Law School. For nearly 40 years he served as Secretary of the Alumni Council and Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Amherst College.