Obituary of Burton Allan MacLean

Burton Allan MacLean died in the early morning of Wednesday, January 12, 2011 at his residence in Pomfret, Connecticut. Reverend MacLean was in his 95th year, born in Batavia, New York on April 13, 1916, the fourth child of Charles Chalmers and Elizabeth Dreyfus MacLean. After graduating from Batavia High School in 1933, he attended and graduated from The Taft School in 1934 where he was an undefeated member of the varsity wrestling team and a member of the varsity football team. He won a scholarship to Yale University where he earned a BA in English in 1938. As a student he was a member of the undergraduate Board of Deacons of Church of Christ, a member of the freshman football team, freshman and varsity crews, freshman and varsity Glee Clubs and his senior year President of the Glee Club, Popo of the Whiffenpoofs, and served on the 1938 Class Council. In 1942 he earned his Bachelors in Divinity from Yale University Divinity School. The Charles MacLean family spent summers beginning in the 1920s on Murray Island in the Thousand Islands at the St. Lawrence River. It was at "the River" where Burton met the love of his life, Catharine Corson of Woronoco Island and Lockport, New York, whom he married on Sept. 20 1939. Burton and Catharine spent the next many decades raising eight children while sharing a career in the ministry and education. After graduating from Yale Divinity School, MacLean served as an Industrial Missionary under the Board of National Missions of the Presbyterian Church in Detroit, Michigan. From 1944 through 1946 he served as US Army Chaplain in the 3rd Battalion, 303 Infantry and 97th Division in the European and Pacific theatres of World War II; and remained as a Captain in the US Army Reserves until 1949. MacLean was appointed Assistant Dean of the Chapel at Princeton University in 1946. Yale University appointed him Associate Pastor, Church of Christ in 1949 where he was also contemporaneously Director of Undergraduate Religious Affairs and Associate University Chaplain. In 1959 he was appointed Headmaster of the Iolani School, in Honolulu, Hawaii. In 1970 he was named Headmaster of the American School of Paris, and in 1977 he became Headmaster of the Pomfret School from which he retired in 1979. During his professional life, MacLean was a member of the Headmaster Association, the National Association of Secondary Schools, the National Association of Secondary Schools, and served as President of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. After retiring in 1979, Burton and Catharine continued to live in Pomfret, Connecticut in the winter and in the summers at their "River" stone house on Tibbets Point in Cape Vincent, New York which they loved to share with their grandchildren. Since 2000 they spent summers in Clayton, New York closer to the summer homes of two of their sons where they could visit with greater frequency their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Burton and Catharine loved all their children and greatly enjoyed life and succeeding generations. In their eighties they built a sailing pram and as avid sportspersons, enjoyed rowing, canoeing and sailing on their beloved River. Once a Whiffenpoof always a performer, Burton sang and danced throughout his life both on and off the stage. Just hours before his death, he sang to his nurse, caregiver and family. He rode his bike until he was eighty-five. Burton was predeceased by Catharine in 2007 and was cared for in the last two years of his life by his devoted daughter Mary Dexter MacLean. Burton is survived by eight children; Burton A. MacLean, Jr. (and wife Charlotte) of Haverford, Pennsylvania and Wolfe Island, Ontario; Katharine MacLean Crane (and husband Philippe) of Chevy Chase, Maryland, and Belmont, Vermont; John Chalmers MacLean (and wife Polly) of Ashfield, Massachusetts and Club Island, New York; Mary D. MacLean of Pomfret, Connecticut, Thomas C. MacLean of Frankfort, Kentucky, Peter Charles MacLean (and wife Elizabeth) of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts; Henry Phelps MacLean of Milton, Massachusetts; and Robert Sydney MacLean of Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts. He is also survived by 14 grandchildren, and 17 great grandchildren. There will be a funeral service for Reverend MacLean at 1 PM on Saturday, January22nd at Christ Episcopal Church in Pomfret, Connecticut. There will also be a memorial service for Reverend MacLean in the summer of 2011 at "the River" in Clayton, New York. In lieu of flowers, remembrances in Rev. MacLean's memory may be sent to Christ Episcopal Church in Pomfret, or Yale University, Class of 1938. To share a memory, "Light a Candle" at www.smithandwalkerfh.com