Mary Ann MacLean, state civic leader, wife of ex-Mettawa mayor, dies
A 6-foot-tall blonde with a definitive air of confidence, Mary Ann MacLean developed a reputation for being a sort of juggernaut, fighting to expand educational opportunities for children as well as helping her husband, a longtime Mettawa mayor, build his political career and the family manufacturing business.
"She said the things that needed to be said," daughter Gillian MacLean Growdon said Saturday. "That just spiraled into requests for her to serve on boards in education, at museums and different centers."
MacLean, a former state board of education member and director of the Illinois State Museum, died Thursday after a lengthy battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 73.
Mary Ann Shirley was born in October 1942 in Pittsburgh and grew up in Hinsdale.
As an assistant to a trader at Merrill Lynch, she met her future husband, Barry MacLean, 50 years ago this month while out for an after-work drink with a high school friend of his.
The rest was history - as the pair were married shortly thereafter. The couple would have celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary later this year.
A resident of Mettawa for 47 years, Mary Ann MacLean became vocal at local school board meetings when her five children were small, seeking to expand foreign language education in early grades.
"She really wanted to prioritize giving everyone access to a world view and be able to have that foundation to explore and participate in a worldwide dialogue," Growdon said.
MacLean served on the Illinois State Museum board for 32 years. In 2011, the Mary Ann MacLean Play Museum, which teaches children to learn, through play, what it is like to work at a museum, opened at the Springfield site. In addition to serving on the state board of education, MacLean was a trustee at the Chicago Zoological Society, the Chicago Botanic Garden, at Dartmouth College's Rassias Center, and at Union College.
Her children recalled that family vacations were not the "Disney World type." Their mother chose "learning trips" in far-flung locations like Kenya, Rwanda and rural China, instead.
"She gave us access to different cultures to really understand their gifts," Growdon said. "She walked the talk of the philosophies she had."
Barry MacLean, Mettawa's mayor from 1995 to 2009, described his wife as a true partner in raising their family and as he built the MacLean-Fogg Co., which produces auto and utility parts.
He also noted she had a wicked sense of humor - buying a maid's uniform from Marshall Field after cooking and entertaining customers at the family home perhaps one too many times.
"She had a good vision of people. A good ability to size up people well and then help those people," Barry MacLean said.
In addition to her husband and five children, MacLean is survived by a sister, Libby Lucas, and 12 grandchildren.
Services are scheduled for 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of the Holy Spirit, 400 E. Westminster Ave., Lake Forest. The family is requesting attendees wear "celebratory clothes" and make donations to the Chicago Botanic Garden in lieu of flowers.