Old John was the real deal. He lived a good life and was well loved by all. John always had a good word to share, and a story to tell. A pun was never far off when you were with John. He had a good run and he remained sharp to the end.
He was born in Tacoma Washington and moved to Los Angeles in 1924 when he was seven. He spent the next 60 years in the area. He attended Le Conte Junior High, Hollywood High, Occidental College, and UCLA where he received his doctorate in biology. He married Adelaide Grant in 1942 and began a long career teaching at Occidental shortly thereafter, while he and Addie raised their sons in their Eagle Rock home two blocks from the college campus.
Following retirement, John and Addie moved to the Puget Sound area and built a house on Filucy Bay in Longbranch. They spent 20 happy years there and became actively involved with the community, boating and gardening. There was nothing he liked better than to be out in the bay watching Mt. Rainier turn pink...then white...as day turned to night.
The final chapter played out in Oceanside CA, where John and Addie moved in order to be closer to their family. John was active in the birdwatchers group, the photography club, and the computer club.
John was a man of many interests. In his files you will find folders on bioluminescence, creation theories, black holes, scaevola, photography, computers, gadgets, history, poetry, fishing, camping, palindromes, ....
He leaves behind Adelaide, his beloved wife of 70 years, two sons (David and Stuart) and their spouses (Lindsay and Laurie), two granddaughters (Sara and Sylvie) and four great grandchildren (Jake, Charlie, Riley, and McKenna), as well as numerous close friends, including colleagues and students from Occidental College and community friends from Eagle Rock, Longbranch and Oceanside.
In accordance with John's wishes, memorial contributions may be made to the McMenamin Scholars, a scholarship at Occidental College, 1600 Campus Road, Los Angeles, CA 90041.
The world is a smaller place without old John. It's up to us to live up to his example and to make it big again.
Tributes
Leave a tributeHe administered the entrance exam to Eugene Cahill and myself, so that when I was discharged from the service, I would be able to get on with my career. My most unforgettable character!
Alec Ingle "63
And then a few years later we were hiking at Mt. Rainer and there were John and Addie having a picnic! Years later, in their Christmas card, they enclosed a snap shot of that chance meeting, featuring our not yet one year old. He is now 39, and has that photo on his bulletin board in his UW office.
A few years later we spent a sabbatical year in Del Mar and found John and Addie's grand daughters were the same age as our two younsters. Colin had his first date, going to his first movie, with Sylvie. Age 3.
A highlight of our Christmas has been reading John and Addie's card. We always laughed ourselves silly. I've kept most, for the beautiful phtography, the fond memories, the wonderful sense of humor but especially to remind us of how life should be lived.
John, you will live on in all our hearts....and in our funny bones.
casey pritchard james
the world of Between Pacific Tides and the stories of John Steinbeck,
and his friend, "Doc". Doc, the author of Between Pacific Tides (Ed
Ricketts) and Steinbeck had great adventures in MontereyBay and
explorations up and down the Pacific Coast, gathering specimens of
marine life, and having some down to earth adventures with some weird human "characters ". Clara Thompson Gresham, Oxy class of 1953
In the last three years, I had the privilege of spending time with John. I would stop to visit on my way to weekly chorale rehearsal. We would take care of practical matters as well as have philosophical discussions or read poetry or just talk about life. Even in the face of pain from a broken clavicle, he was concerned about others (the comfort of his caregivers; that I was “wasting” too much time on him) Even in the face of pain, we almost always managed to have a laugh. He was very appreciative of my visits, but I always came away feeling as if I were the one who had received the gift.
John taught me nobility of spirit, curiosity about the natural world, and an immense appreciation of the beauty to be found everywhere, even in a close up photograph of a flesh fly. He appreciated the perfection of nature and in that appreciation I sensed a deeply spiritual man, despite his protests. I admired him greatly and loved him dearly, and will miss him dearly. If we could all be even a little bit more like John, the world would be a much kinder, gentler place, and a lot more fun.
Some months later I was invited to the McMenamin house to again witness that twinkle and sly grin as a group of students and friends were enticed into helping him mix and pour some concrete for a small backyard patio slab. He and Addie kept us full of sandwiches and lemonade while we worked the day away. At the end of the project Dr. Mac was just as clean as when the work started, while the rest of the "crew" looked a bit careworn. I realized then that he was not only smart but incredibly clever!
Thanks, Dr. Mac, for those and a thousand more wonderful memories of classes, field trips, and backyard adventures. "Pachygrapsus" indeed...
Gordon and Kim Marsh, 1968
John was a “great” great grandfather. –Riley (Age 7)
I really loved John a lot. –Kenna (Age 5)
I am so happy that I got to meet John. He is a very intelligent, nice person. –Charlie (Age 9)
My other strong memory of John was sitting through one of his lectures during which he was speaking on the Olympic rain forest. He was admonishing people to avoid downed and rotting snag trees and leave well enough alone the tall stumps left over from the days of tall timber logging. His point was to let them decay at their own rate. I raised my hand and thanked him for the information but that he was talking about my childhood playground equipment, as I had grown up in the north woods. He allowed that he had climbed his share of stumps before studying about the effects.
Ed Johnson '73
Paula and I send our love and condolences. Your father was a great man. With Much Sympathy, Gil
On the day in question, what to this day comes to mind as indicative of how John McMenamin made science come alive was his own perpetual, almost boylike, joy of discovery as if he were repeatedly looking in a microscope for the very first time. I was so lame I couldn't even get my microscope to focus properly on this fondly remembered day, and he came over to my lab station to help me focus. I knew the instant he'd gotten it into focus from the gasp of wonder he emitted as he turned the microscope back to me to behold what magic of creation was now exposed to our eyes. I don't think I'd ever heard an adult show such uncensored joy in the most minute aspect of his work. It remains one of my most memorable "brushes with greatness" in my Oxy years, recalling that sheer delight which spoke volumes about a man who was the absolute opposite of "jaded" and instead spread infectious love of learning and discovery to everyone who had the privilege of studying with him. I know without a doubt that the past 45 years since I last saw him have been richly lived ones and that his family has this magical legacy his 96 years have left behind.
Carolyn Taylor, MFT, Ph.D.
"For the beauty of the earth, for the glory of the skies, for the love which from our birth. over and around us lies....
The wonder and joy with which he spoke of the web of life and led us out there to swim with the pupfish and gaze at the stars will never be fogotten.
I appreciated receiving this message. I will relate two fond memories that have stuck over the years involving your dad. The first was when some of us were tired of visiting every desert in the surroundings and wanted our field trip to go to the mountains. We knew it was a lost cause so we prepared a presentation that the professors (McMenamin and Wells) only knew was going to be controversial and they prepared to argue against the mountains and for the desert. Our presentation was that we should visit the Tujunga Canyon and how educational it would be to see the houses, etc there. The look on their faces was of shock as they realized we were kidding and, or course, we visited the desert, again. The second memory stems from the fact that John lived into his 90's. In 1965 we were at altitude-likely 1000 feet but I cannot remember where or how high but John looked as if his life were ending that night with breathing problems and weakness. I look back thinking any day now we would lose our chief. It only took 50+ years more to get there. He was one soft tough cookie. Every adjective applies! Cathy and my thoughts are with you all as we celebrate one wonderful life.
-- Randy
Randall T. Schapiro, M.D., FAAN
President, The Schapiro Multiple Sclerosis Advisory Group
And
Clinical Professor of Neurology (Retired)
University of Minnesota
John Mcmenamin was an amazing person and cool great grandfather. Although I was born when he was 84 years old, I had the pleasure of meeting him and sharing many memories. He taught me a lot of important things about life. He was a very intellegent man and knew a lot about animals and life. I am very happy that that he passed a lot of this information on to me. He had such a sharp mind and and I am very lucky that he was a part of my family. You were a great person, I love you so much John.
Leave a Tribute
He administered the entrance exam to Eugene Cahill and myself, so that when I was discharged from the service, I would be able to get on with my career. My most unforgettable character!
Please be patient.
Please be patient.
Please be patient.
Please be patient.
Puns and such
When I worked for Addie McMenamin at the alumni office in the late '50s and early '60s, Occidental College was featured in Time magazine. The headline of the story was "The Little Giant." John promptly pointed out that was an oxy=moron.
Although I moved to Indiana after graduation, I never lost touch with Addie and John, who convinced me finally to stop calling him "Dr. McMenamin." We exchanged Christmas greetings through the years, and, whenever we visited my daughter in Oceanside, we would get together, originally at their home but later at Mimi's. It was a special delight for me to extend the membership in my small branch of the McMenamin Fan Club to include my husband, daughter, and son-in-law. At my 50th Oxy reunion in 2012, I shared photos from our latest brunch at Mimi's with the biology majors and passed on to them the messages John had entrusted to me.
What a rich and beautiful life he lived, always with a twinkle and a quip. He made the world a better place. I will miss him until the day I die.
McMenamin Pets
Being the sons of a biologist meant that Stu and I did not have the traditional dogs or cats as pets. Instead, we had a chuckwalla (named, surprisingly enough, Chuck), two kangaroo rats (Red and Rocky), an Antelope Valley ground squirrel (named Q.T., short for Quick Turn), a Belding’s ground squirrel (named Petie, short for Petronius) and a desert tortoise (named Basil Metabolism)
We always loved to take Chuck outside to mosey around the front lawn eating dandelion flowers. Basil spent his summers wandering around Norris Hall of Science at Oxy, and spent his winters somewhere in our back yard.
The two ground squirrels were very tame, being born at Oxy. Q.T.’s mother came from a trip to Paiute Butte east of Lancaster (as did Red and Rocky). Petie’s mother came from the Oxy research station just outside Tioga Pass.
Petie had two siblings, the “twins,” who were taken care of by the biology secretary at the time. Once when she went on vacation, John brought them home so we could care for them. John said that she left only one important instruction, namely that they could not miss seeing George of the Jungle. We didn’t believe him, but the next time it was on, we set their cage on a table near the T.V. The minute the George of the Jungle theme song came on, both squirrels stood up and held on to the front of the cage and watched the entire show, barely moving. Unbelievable.
Since Petie was from such a high elevation, each fall he would bulk up, move his cotton nest from the corner of his cage to his running wheel, lower his body temperature and go into hibernation. He was the perfect pet to care for during the winter. A couple of winters, there was a hot spell in January or February. Since Petie’s cage was in an enclosed porch, the heat made him think that it was time to come out of hibernation. But he only made it part way out. He was still fat and cold to the touch. These times, I let the neighborhood kids hold him. When they asked why he was so cold, I told him that we keep him in the freezer during the winter.
Palindromes
John was a great fan of palindromes. As his first palindromic year, 1991, approached, he set a goal to live at least until a second palindromic year, 2002, for a number of reasons. First, naturally, was that 2002 is a palindrome. Second was that the sum or his age and that of dear friend Tim Sanders (also born on April 1) would be more than 150. Third, in the late 1980s it was predicted that 2002 would be the year that Social Security expenditures would exceed revenues (after which it would be all downhill). In 2002 when celebrating his success on living in two palindromic years, John remarked how lucky we all were, since anyone born after than 1991 would have to live for at least 110 years to live in two palindromic years.
One of John’s favorite palindromes came from Jack Smith, a columnist in the Los Angeles Times, who wrote about the palindromic Yreka Bakery, whose sign was a triangle with each letter in “Yreka” being successively larger, the B being the largest letter, and the letters in “akery” being successively smaller. After the bakery closed, a subsequent business in its location was the Yrella Gallery, also a palindrome, whose sign was triangular in the tradition of the Yreka Bakery.
In a conversation with John a while back, he was commenting on the vast amount of information now at anyone’s fingertips through the internet. One of the examples he used was that the Yreka article on Wikipedia quotes Mark Twain’s belief that Yreka was accidentally named when a newly painted canvas sign with the word BAKERY on it was stretched out to dry, and a stranger read it from behind, seeing all the letters but the B, and thus assumed that the town’s name was YREKA, a name that stuck. Wikipedia also discusses the Palindromic nature of the Yreka Bakery and Yrella Gallery, and says that an ad for the bakery in 1863 was “spell Yreka Bakery backwards and you will know where to get a good loaf of bread.”
John loved stuff like this.