Necrology

James Duncan MacLennan '58

Feb. 13, 1937-Feb. 7, 2018

James Duncan MacLennan ’58, a wholesale furniture sales agent of Chicago whose extraordinary generosity to Hamilton has prompted a $10 million matching fundraising campaign to benefit student scholarships, was born on Feb. 13, 1937, in Norwood, Mass., a son of Duncan MacLennan and the former Elizabeth Deady. He prepared for college at Walpole (Mass.) High School.

On College Hill, MacLennan focused his studies in French and economics. He was a member of Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. Following his Hamilton graduation, he served in the Massachusetts National Guard and worked as a furniture buyer for Jordan Marsh Co. in Boston. During that time he also earned his M.B.A. in marketing in the evenings at Boston University.

In 1963, MacLennan headed west to Chicago, where he established a wholesale furniture sales business, working as a sales agent representing Midwest furniture manufacturers for more than 40 years before retiring in 2004.

A self-described Francophile, he enjoyed international travel, following the stock market, gardening, attending plays and movies, swimming, and biking.

Throughout his life MacLennan ­maintained a fondness for and a connection to his alma mater, having served on the major gifts committee for the Campaign for the ’90s and as a class gift chair on behalf of Hamilton’s Annual Fund. In 1998, he established The James D. MacLennan ’58 Scholarship, awarded to any Hamilton student who has demonstrated financial need and who is in good standing at the College.

“[Hamilton] gave me a broad background to appreciate and enjoy art, music, and literature, as well as an ability to speak, write, and interact successfully with others in the business world,” he once noted on an alumni survey.

Motivated by his desire to ensure the benefit of a Hamilton education to future generations, he provided for the College in his will. Those funds have resulted in the MacLennan Scholarship Match, an opportunity that allows donors who might not otherwise have the resources to create a scholarship, named in their family’s honor, at half the amount normally required.

MacLennan died on Feb. 7, 2018, in Chicago at the age of 80. Never married, he has no immediate family survivors.

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