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.

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.

Leaving them Alone

Peter J. Johnson

During the 1950’s - a time when John D. Rockefeller, III was most actively engaged in institution-building, sand Don McLean was his chief associate working on problems in connection with the Third World - they concentrated their efforts chiefly on two organizations. Those were the Population Council and the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs. The latter was the parent body of the Agricultural Development Council and the JDR, 3rd Fund.

There was no simplistic or easy route to their objective, and they deliberately accepted a more complex and difficult way of attacking the problem of world poverty and its concomitants. They followed a policy of patience to allow for the painful accumulation of facts, the development of appropriate policies, and a cooperative effort with the Third World in order to produce change. At the most basic level this involved creating organizations able to deal with the issues, and then leaving them alone to do their work. The need for "leaving alone" is not understood by most people, and Don’s acceptance of the principal was one of his most important contributions to John D Rockefeller, 3rd and to the world.

Don’s primary role was to translate JDR, 3rd ideas into reality, and in doing that he worked most closely with the Population Council and the Agricultural Development Council. He carried out an infinite number of housekeeping tasks, such as providing and staffing offices, gaining tax exemptions, and handling visa problems for fellows. But, more importantly he had to secure strong and innovative leadership.

There were initial leadership problems with both organizations.  Fred Osborn, the leading layman in the population field, was aging and also had his own private agenda. J. Lossing Buck in the agricultural field had somewhat similar handicaps. Don was a strong advocate of Frank Notestein’s demographic approach to population; when the time came to replace Osborne at the Population Council, it was natural for him to turn to Notestein.

For the Agricultural Development Council Arthur Mosher was an absolutely inspired choice to become the head, and Don was the one who persuaded the very reluctant Mosher to accept the job. I heard a story of how it happened from both Art and Don. It's well worth the telling, as follows.

Both JDR, 3rd and Don believed that he exclusively biological approach of the Rockefeller Foundation to the problems of world food supply was both useful and necessary, but did not in itself provide a solution to the overall problem. Using the reasoning of William Myers of Cornell and Ted Schultz of Chicago, they argued for a parallel social science effort that would apply the theoretical breakthroughs of the natural scientists to the reality of Third World agriculture and society. They lost that battle within the Rockefeller Foundation and decided to attempt it on their own.

After creation of the Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs (CECA) JDR, 3rd and Don carried out their search for permanent leadership of the Agricultural Development Council. They eventually settled on Art Mosher as the most qualified candidate because of his long experience in agricultural economics in both Asia and South America. 

Don approached Mosher, who was most hesitant about accepting the position. Don was intrigued by his diffidence because, as he said, most people fell all over themselves when given the chance to work with a Rockefeller. Don pushed Art for an explanation, and he finally confessed his reasons. During his study of United States assistance programs in Latin America, he had looked carefully at IBEC/AIA, the combined business and philanthropic organization created and led by Nelson Rockefeller at the end of World War II. According to Mosher, Nelson would come up with a marvelous new idea  for instance something to do with the marketing of agricultural commodities - that he believed would remake the world in six months. Everybody had to stop but they were doing and go to work on the new project. But when the world was not completely done over in six months, Nelson would become discouraged and shift to some newer scheme. Then everyone would have to go work on that one.

Art Mosher said he could not accept interference from on high in the conduct of his work, and that it was essential his sponsors have the patience to wait for fifteen or twenty years, if necessary, before seeing evidence of progress and change. Don saw the wisdom of that philosophy, reported it to JDR 3rd, and persuaded him to accept it. 

Over the next twenty years both JDR, 3rd and Don we're consistently supportive of Mosher and the ADC, never interfering on matters of policy or personnel. Don's critical role in establishing the creative independence of the ADC may have been one of his greatest contributions to the public interest and to the welfare of millions in the Third World.

Peter J Johnson, New York City, worked with Don McLean in the late 70’s in the compilation of the record of John D Rockefeller 3rd.

To help meet some of the urgent needs

Arthur. T. Mosher

Soon after World War II Mr. John D Rockefeller, 3rd decided that he wanted a major part of his philanthropy to be related to Asia. He was quite clear about what he wanted to accomplish, but less certain about how to go about it. He wanted his activities to help meet some of the urgent needs of people in Asia. He also wanted to recognize, and bring to the attention of Americans, some of the cultural achievements of Asians.

What kind of the program would best serve those purposes? What kind of an organization could create that program?

It was at that point that Don McLean came into the picture and played a unique role. To reflect the breath of Mr. Rockefeller's interests in Asia. Work with Mr. Rockefeller in selecting an appropriate name - The Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs - to reflect the breath Mr. Rockefeller's interest in Asia. He played the leading role in selecting a Board of Trustees composed of persons who had had long-term personal acquaintance with Asia. He made the talent search to identify an appropriate Chief Executive Officer - one who would have the personal support of Mr. Rockefeller and the professional technical standing to develop and direct the council’s activities in Asia

When, after 10 years, Don perceived that it would be better to separate the cultural affairs of the Council from its economic activities and to give the latter a more descriptive name he played a leading role in creating the JDR, 3rd Fund to concentrate on cultural affairs and the Agricultural Development Council to concentrate on economic and human problems in in rural development in Asia.

In these various activities, Don brought a combination of skills not frequently found together. His training as a lawyer enabled him to give appropriate administrative structure to each proposed program. His close rapport with Mr. Rockefeller enabled him to interpret to him the significance of what professional technical people were proposing in the way of programs. His warmth as a human being contributed substantially to a productive camaraderie among staff, officers, and trustees of each organization.

Don became an elected member of the Trustees of the Agricultural Development Council in 1965 and President of the Trustees in 1974. He continued in that position until 1979, when he reached the councils mandatory retirement age for trustees.

Don had strong convictions about how an organization should be run. To him, the responsibility of a Board of Trustees was to select a Chief Executive Officer, and then either back or replace him; it was nothing Trustees role to participate in day-to-day administration.

His concept of his role in those Rockefeller organizations was consistent with that. "I am no expert on that" he frequently said, "but I know how to find and recruit the cooperation of those who are."

He certainly did! 

Art Mosher was Executive Director and the President of the Agricultural Development Council. At the age of 23 he went to India to become instructor in agricultural engineering, developing an extension service serving 500 villages. In the mid-1950s fifties he made an in-depth study of agricultural programs in Latin America. He has written many articles and consulted widely on programs of agricultural development.

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.

For 4,500 individuals of forty nationalities

Shigeharu Matsumoto

On October 5, 1982, the International House of Japan celebrated the 30th anniversary of its founding in Tokyo. More than 100 distinguished intellectuals and government and business leaders, all interested in the work of international cultural exchange, were present.

On that occasion, three American friends were our special guest: Blanchette  Rockefeller, representing her late husband John D Rockefeller, 3rd, Donald H McLean,Jr. and Martha, his wife.

The International House of Japan was incorporated under Japanese law on August 27, 1952, as a private organization devoted to the cause of international cultural and academic exchange. For the preceding ten months, a Cultural Center Preparatory Committee, with me as executive secretary, worked hard to find and acquire premises, deliberate on the legal format, devise a program of international cultural exchange, and prepare the financial bases for bringing it about. John D. Rockefeller and Don McLean, his chief associate, came to Tokyo in the autumn of 1951 and again the following spring for the discussions with me and the late professor Yasaka Takagi, my mentor.

Don and I were destined to meet almost every day. We had some twenty close discussions before we finally drafted our initial application to the Rockefeller Foundation for a grant. The planned cultural center, later named the International House of Japan, was something completely new to this country. The Japanese members of the Preparatory Committee were unanimous in insisting that the center must have its own premises, while the Rockefeller Foundation was resolute in rejecting any kind of grant application that included acquisition of real estate. The Foundation had been generous in making grants to universities, as well as the Diet Library, and naturally was particular about the kinds of application would consider. Meeting the requirements of the Foundation on one hand and the express advice of the Japanese committee members on the other, Don and I worked it out by mutual agreement as to the desired land and then secured its purchase. We of course had countless other problems to resolve before eventually agreeing on every point. At length, on May 31, 1953, Don left Tokyo with our application for a grant to the Rockefeller Foundation.

During these discussions, I found Don McLean a person of patience, of foresight, of warm sentiment and shining character. After this initial work was done, Don continued to be deeply interested in the development of the International House, even after he was no longer associated with Rockefeller. Our friendship continued, even deepened, after he became president of the Leahy Clinic Foundation. He was guardian for my son Ken when he was a student at Swarthmore; he was also guardian for my daughter Misao when she was a student at Vassar.

In my office, I have a magnificent picture of Don that greets me every day. I have been affiliated with the International House now for thirty three years. A day rarely passes that I do not think of Don and his friendship and many American friends I value none above him.

The International House of Japan, which in a real sense he help to make, is now well-established. Its membership numbers above 4,500 individuals of 40 nationalities. Its annual budget exceeds ¥1 billion, with income and expenditures in good balance. For a long time to come we shall remember the name of Donald H McLean, Jr. and his distinguished contribution to this organization

Shigeharu Matsumoto, was the principle Japanese citizen involved in the founding of the International House of Japan. An international journalist, lawyer, writer, and executive, he served as the first managing director of the International House.

Good deeds are not sufficient unto themselves

Belen H. Abreu

On May 1, 1957, a history-making meeting was held in one of the rooms of the old Manila Hotel. Ramon Magsaysay, the much love President of the Philippines had died one and a half months earlier in a tragic airplane crash with twenty four others, and the meeting was to discuss the organization of a board of trustees of a foundation to honor his memory through a program of awards to recognize individuals in Asia who, like him, served their countries and fellowmen with courage and dedication. In the room where Mrs. Albert (Marjorie) Ravenholt, Donald H McLean, Jr., both representing the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Jesus Magsaysay, the brother of the late President and myself, then legal officer of the Philippine Commission on Elections.

That was my first meeting with Don, and his penetrating gaze and serious mien we're unsettling to say the least. That was also my first meeting with Jesus and both of us were eager to get Marjorie's ear to bring her up to date on the political situation, since a number of her dear friends we're running for office in the coming November elections - one for President and another for the Senate. We were, of course, touched by the noble gesture of the Rockefeller family to establish the award program and Don was telling us about the concept of the memorial, the role of the Rockefellers in this venture, and the trustees commitment and responsibility. Marjorie's long acquaintance with the Philippine scene and her equally long exposure to Asia fitted her ideally to be Don's teammate getting the Magsaysay Foundation off the ground. We all had stories we were dying to tell each other, but in deference to Don we desisted. A sharpened pencil and a pad on hand, this lanky American and his regulation striped blue and white seersucker suit was talking just like a lawyer. Since we already had a general idea of what the proposed memorial was all about, whenever there was a lull in the conversation, we would regale Marjorie with tidbits of the political boiling pot. We gradually grew aware of Don walking towards the window air conditioner to turn it on and, being an old appliance, it made a  disturbing racket which prevented us from hearing each other well. So we would stop our storytelling. Don would then put off the air-conditioner and continue with his explanation or questions.

This turning on and off of the air-conditioner went on for some time, until we finally caught on that we had to finish the business on hand before we could talk politics. I said silently to myself, "Thank heavens for Marjorie who understands our penchant for political gossip," as Don with his brusque and businesslike manner would have been hard to take without her. 

That was my impression of Don at our first meeting. It was my good fortune to be associated with him over the next 20 years and a nicer man and more steadfast friend it would be hard to find. When he smiled and executed that footwork of his that was almost a pirouette while bringing his two hands to a resounding clap, and his brown eyes twinkling and a wide grin dominating his face, you just got a feeling that all is well with the world. No longer was that unflinching gaze unsettling, no longer was his businesslike demeanor uncomfortable to take, for we knew that he was trying to get things done in the best way he knew. With our respect grew an affectionate regard for this man, for he gave himself unselfishly, sharing a brilliance of mind that underscored the good deeds are not sufficient onto themselves, they must be anchored to concepts that can endure when we leave the scene. This he has done in the Raymon Magsaysay Award Foundation's is witness to this.

Belen H. Abreu was Executive Trustee of the Raymon Magsaysay Award Foundation, 1957 - 1984. A member of the Philippine bar since 1944 she served as Chief Attorney, Commission on Elections, Philippine Government after World War II.

And then…India

Phillips Talbot

In India, as elsewhere, Don McLean contributed vision, practicality, and precision to the imaginative concepts that illuminated John D. Rockefeller 3rd’s great decade of institutional bridge-building across the Pacific. By 1958 the revived Japan Society along with the new Population Council, International House of Japan, Council on Economic and Cultural Affairs (later to be divided into the Agricultural Development Council and the JDR 3rd Fund), Asia Society, and Magsaysay Award Foundation were all in place and had begun to make the marks that distinguished each of them in the ensuing generation. John and his associates, notably including Don McLean, had tailored each to a specific, recognized need. But as yet they had not directly approached India.

Still newly independent in the 1950’s, India was a very large and obviously important country that had initially drawn John Rockefeller’s interest through its classic arts. In time John had pondered the value that India, which was opening fresh and wide international contacts, might gain from an International House, possibly modeled on the lines of the Tokyo House. He had hesitated to mention his interest to India’s leaders, however, because he knew how the pride of a new nation left them sensitive about foreign involvement in their national life. Thus, during a visit to New Delhi in February 1958, he was particularly pleased when India’s renown philosopher - and Vice President - and later President - Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, described how impressed he and Prime Minister Nehru had been by their earlier visits to the International House of Japan. It would be useful for India to have a similar institution, Dr. Radhakrishnan said. Could Mr. Rockefeller, out of his experience with the Tokyo House, prepare a memorandum outlining some of the functions such an establishment might have in India?

Mr. Rockefeller could and would. He cancelled onward travel plans in order to extend his stay in India and, on the same day, cabled Don McLean asking that he join him in New Delhi as soon as possible. When Don arrived a week later John had completed the memorandum. John and Don then called on Dr. Radhakrishnan, who was enthusiastic about the idea.

Thus was born the conception of what Srimati Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay has recently called “this rare institution,” the India International Center. Over the ensuing decades this Centre has brought together widening circles of Indian and foreign scholars and educators, journalists, diplomats, national planners, and others. Its library, auditorium, and conference facilities, its rooms for visiting residents, its restaurant and lounges and its beautiful gardens on a five-acre plot adjoining the splendid Lodi Gardens have become one of India’s primary intellectual and cultural centers.

For years were to intervene between the original Radhakrishnan/Rockefeller talks and the opening of the India International Centre on January 22, 1962. Throughout those years the principals, including Dr. Radhakrishnan's senior Indian associates, relied heavily on Don McLean's capacity for problem focused analysis, careful and sometimes delicate negotiation, and skilled drafting. But from the early months of Don's relationships in India went beyond those of a lawyer engaging in a constructive negotiation. He and the Indian men and women with whom he worked formed a collegial friendship that endured through later years.

I recall, for example, Don's association with Dr. C.D. Deshmukh, a distinguished educator and at the time head of the Indian University Grants Commission. When Dr. Deshmukh accepted Vice President Radhakrishnan’s request that he take the lead in organizing an international house in New Delhi, Don became his liaison with the Rockefeller interests. Dr. Deshmukh and his associates took Don into their confidence as they discussed the proposed institution’s functions, program patterns, desirable facilities, site and finances. In return he offered his own appraisals passed and along the experiences of other Rockefeller-related organizations in addressing similar matters. In frequent visits to New Delhi he helped them put their dreams and plans in words that would have meaning to international funding organizations, notably the Rockefeller Foundation and the JDR, 3rd Fund. All the time he kept John Rockefeller informed of the progress being made in New Delhi. As a perceptive go-between, he helped each end of this collaboration better to understand the outlook, possibilities, and difficulties of the other. In the process a friendship group and Don and his wife Martha became warm friends of Dr. and Mrs. Deshmukh.

Two images of Don's Indian connection remain strong in my mind. One derives from New Delhi. On announcement of Don’s impending arrival the pace of activity among the planners of the center would pick up. Dr. Deshmukh with his colleagues Dr. P.N. Kirpal, Laxmi Jain, the architect Joseph Stein, and others would ready themselves for discussions. Having come halfway across the world Don would then turn up without apparent travel fatigue, briskly settle down to consideration of one issue after another, offer his suggestions or criticisms or approval, and talk of the tactics of moving onto the next stage. In a country where many things move slowly, he was able at the end of almost every visit to report progress.

My other image is of Don in New York, reporting on the projects development in New Delhi. He would explain everything about the Indian’s achievements and difficulties to John Rockefeller, of course, and to those of us who were trustees of the JDR, 3rd Fund. He would also convey his impressions to officers of the Rockefeller Foundation, and possibly to others. His analyses were always clear-eyed. The Indians were approaching the project differently from the earlier, successful, organizational experience of the International House of Japan. But Indians were not Japanese, and Don would explain how in the Indian context their contrasting ways might also workout successfully. His interpretations of the Indian process had much to do with the acceptance by New York-based trustees, many of whom had little Indian experience, of assistance request from New Delhi.

Throughout the development of the plan for the India International Centre, Don was concerned that the question of appropriate leadership receive adequate attention in New Delhi. The total commitment of Dr. Shigeharu Matsumoto, its director, had been the key ingredient in the strong position attained by the International House of Japan. In India Deshmukh had felt that this other commitments would not permit him to play a similar role, though his interest was deep. Yet the more Don worked with him, the stronger he came to feel that the future of the Centre might well rest on getting Dr. Deshmukh wholly involved not just in the planning stage but in its ongoing operations. John Rockefeller agreed. , and Don arranged with Dr. Matsumoto that Dr. Deshmukh be invited to the International House of Japan as a distinguished lecturer. This experience and the encouragement of his Indian colleagues and American friends resulted in 1961 in Dr. Deshmukh’s taking over full leadership of the Center.

Don's responsibilities in the development of the India International Centre were completed by the time of its opening in 1962. Yet he retained his strong interest in the project. When he traveled to India years later, in 1976, on a mission for the Population Council and the Agricultural Development Council, Don and Martha stayed at the Center for several days. He later reported that he was impressed by the way it was operating, by its seminars and discussion groups, and by its role in India's national cultural and intellectual life. He was pleased also buys widening attraction to international academic and professional visitors to India.

Those of us who have resided in the India International Center in the 1980’s can confirm the value of the institution. The Center functions as a wholly Indian institution whose origins Americans can be proud to have been associated. 

To describe Don McLean’s role in India as that of a technician is accurate, but wholly inadequate. To be sure, he helped put proposals into language that would meet lawyers needs. He could, and did, help structure budgets in ways that could be understood by American foundation executives. He Interpreted Indians’ and Americans’ thought processes to each other.

Yet his real contributions went beyond those formal responsibilities. In India as elsewhere he was a Johnny Appleseed of ideas. He somehow managed to convey what had worked in one situation to those seeking a solution to problems in another. He hacked away at lack of realism in planning yet was able to shore up courage and optimism at the moments of discouragement that inevitably afflicted projects of this size and complexity. Indians paid him the complement of returning the favor.

Phillips Talbot was a fellow trustee of the JDR, 3rd Fund and cooperator in several Asian-related Rockefeller projects.  United States Ambassador to Greece 1965 to 1969, and before that Assistant Secretary of State for Near East and Southeast Asia, he was also an educator and writer who had been a journalist in Asian affairs for nearly 50 years.

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.

The Lahey Clinic Foundation

Herbert D. Adams, M.D.

On January 5, 1965 the official press release read: "The Lahey Clinic Foundation Elects a New President."

There was far more behind this line - over three years of considerable thought and effort, a true test of mettle and character.

Don McLean's involvement with the Lahey Clinic began in 1962, soon after I became Director of the Clinic following the retirement of Dr. Richard Cattell. A few years previously we had begun holding informal meetings with five other large clinics (Mayo, Cleveland, Ford, Ochsner, and Lovelace, Albuquerque, New Mexico). These annual two-day meetings were attended by top representatives from the administration and medical staffs. The agendas were simple, practical and very informal. Although several of the clinics had thought seriously about changing their corporate structure to a nonprofit basis, the first to do so was the Cleveland Clinic.

From the beginning of my involvement with administration, I had been dissatisfied with our corporate structure which has been set up under interlocking Massachusetts trusts by Dr. Leahy. Heavy taxes alone had not permitted the setting aside of funds for a new site and facility. It was a pressing issue for us. We had sounded out corporation lawyers in Boston, receiving scant encouragement because it had never been done in Massachusetts. We finally asked our Cleveland Clinic friends for more details, and to our amazement were told they had exactly the same experience in Ohio. Finally one of their trustees adjusted consultation with a corporate lawyer by the name of Donald H McLean, Jr., associated with John D Rockefeller, 3rd in New York. They had worked with him and he had led them to success. Further they were so impressed they had made him a trustee of the new Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

After making an appointment with him, Mr. Arthur Lyman, Chairman of the Lahey trustees, and I went to New York where we are graciously received. Don McLean listened intently to our proposition and then asked several pertinent questions. Before departure he told us he thought it could be done, and further that he would be pleased to join with us in the effort. For our part we were very impressed by his thoughtful reception, the detailed and factual discussion, and the keenness of his mind.

Thus began three long years of continuous consultation, the endless drafting of necessary legal instruments to meet our particular requirements, and most importantly determining how the plan might be put into operation after approval by the Massachusetts Secretary of State and the Internal Revenue Service. A large order indeed. Included of course we're opinions as to what could actually be gained by changing to a nonprofit status. Also an astute survey of our short-term and long-term goals and objectives. Don was at his best in this task, drafting many superb memoranda for study and guidance.

After two years of work it became clear that we could not get approval of the nonprofit status unless the Clinic was headed up by a board of trustees, the majority of who we're laymen. Likewise its president who would be the chief executive officer. I agreed to accept this legal requirement and gave up the directorship on the condition that our new Articles of Incorporation would specifically state that all medical matters would remain permanently under the jurisdiction of the board of governors made up of staff physicians with myself as chairman. In this manner our new corporate structure was finally approved by the Secretary of State and the IRS

We began the search for someone with exceptionally broad qualifications needed for the Clinic presidency. Our search turned up some fine possibilities, but none with the truly broad skills which we considered essential. Finally, Mr. Lyman said, “Really the only person who has all the right qualifications is Don McLean, and I would like to offer the position to him." This we did, and after considerable thought he wrote me a letter dated December 20, 1963 submitting a provisional acceptance. This letter is reproduced in the appendix since it is a typical McLean masterpiece, illustrating perfectly his flair for expressing himself in a thoughtful and convincing manner. Before acceptance, he states the issue with great precision and foresight. At the same time his sensitivity to the personalities involved has him include a proviso for a year of working together to see if "there was mutual compatibility."

At the end of this probation year (1964), the compatibility was evident and Don plunged into his new responsibilities. First we carefully worked outlines of authority - he in administration and I in medical matters. This is of course had been a worry for everyone during the planning stage. We soon found that lines of responsibility did overlap in many medical areas, and frequently we simply had to decide under whose jurisdiction it fell or whether it was a co-jurisdiction. This was done without rancor -  there was just too much to do!

With Don's enthusiastic blessings I concentrated on medical matters: medical staff, manpower and delivery of quality care. We pioneered the provision of group coverage for business and industry. While working in these fields I became very interested in the use of computers, even taking a course for executives offered by IBM. We did computerize our business operations promptly, and soon moved to the area of patient appointments and high-volume diagnostic services. These were beginning steps, but important ones which have helped to lead to the widespread use of the computer in all facets of healthcare today.

One of our major goals after the incorporation was the search for adequate facilities - a top-flight medical center where we could accomplish our major objectives of total medical coverage, quality control, efficiency, and reasonable cost. I relied almost completely on Don in the complicated negotiations to plan a medical complex with the New England Baptist Hospital on Parker Hill in Boston. When this negotiation faltered we decide to go it alone. In all this work a major headache was to be the funding for such a quality facility. Furthermore we were working in the face of almost prohibitive odds - steady encroachment on the right of free enterprise, the dawn of an era of regulation and controls administered by self-styled experts, and a blight of pernicious legal suits coupled with spiraling costs.

We are grateful to this gifted man for his strong and steady hand at the helm through the difficult complicated transitional years which culminated, in his words,"in specific plans for the construction and funding of a consequential medical complex in Burlington, Massachusetts." He retired from the presidency of the Clinic in 1975, but remained on the Board of Trustees. In 1980 he witnessed the move into the superb new medical center where it is one of the best and most successful institutions in the country.

Herbert T Adams, M.D. was President of the Lahey Clinic Trust, becoming Chairman of the Board of Governors when the Lahey Clinic Foundation was formed. A surgeon with widespread medical affiliations, he had been a trustee of both the New England Baptist and New England Deaconess Hospitals.