Ninth Generation

17867. Living was born in 1930 in Los Angeles Co., CA.⁴⁴⁵³¹

A living couple was married in 1952 in Claremont, Los Angeles Co., CA.⁴⁴⁵³² Malcolm Carnegie McKenna, son of Donald Carnegie McKenna and Bernice Caroline Waller, was born on 21 July 1930 in Pomona, Los Angeles Co., CA.⁴⁴⁵³³ He emigrated on 19 June 1947 from United States of Brazil.⁴⁴⁵³⁴ Malcolm died in Boulder, Boulder Co., CO on 3 March 2008.

Malcolm Carnegie McKenna ‘48, retired Frick curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History, and professor emeritus of geological sciences at Columbia University, died on March 3 in Boulder, Colorado. He was 77.

Well-known in the world of vertebrate paleontology, McKenna credited much of his early enthusiasm for fossil hunting to beloved Webb teacher Raymond Alf.  When he was awarded the A.S. Romer – G.G. Simpson Medal, the highest honor given annually by The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Malcolm said the following of his experience with Ray:

“His charismatic and unorthodox teaching influenced not only me but a whole string of geologist and paleontologists.  The Webb School had, and continues to have, a wonderful influence by interesting young people in science.  With Ray, we conducted a lot of field trips to the nearby badlands at Barstow, and immediately after World War II when gas rationing was lifted we began to explore in the Big Badlands of South Dakota and Nebraska and to taste the pleasures of field work in Wyoming.  There is nothing in the world as exciting as the first fossil skull or skeleton you ever find.  Mine was a big titanothere skull just north of Crawford, Nebraska.”

The titanothere skull was returned to Webb and nicknamed “Betsy;” it is still proudly on display in the Alf Museum.

McKenna was a generous and significant supporter of the Alf Museum and its programs.  He was a founding member of the Alf’s Board of Trustees and served in that capacity for nearly 30 years, from 1979 until his death.  He was genuinely committed to the long-term sustainability of the museum and believed its research programs provided the institution with an “intellectual core.” He attended and led many peccary trips, the Goler region of California being a favorite destination.

Malcolm McKenna was born in Pomona, in 1930, the son of Donald and Bernice McKenna, and grew up in Claremont.

At Webb, Malcolm was a five-year man and a life member of C.S.F. He gained local renown in 1945 when he built the first homemade television set in town, using a WWII surplus radar tube.

From Webb, Malcolm went on to receive his B.S. and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley. He taught briefly at Berkeley and was offered an Assistant Curatorship at the American Museum of Natural History and an Assistant Professorship at Columbia University and remained with both institutions for the duration of his career.
Dr. McKenna was the author of hundreds of research papers collected in over a dozen volumes. He was also a Fellow of New York's Explorers Club. Dr. McKenna taught and mentored over 30 Ph.D. students in paleontology. The prominent evolutionist and writer Stephen Jay Gould once said that everything he ever learned about mammals, he learned from Malcolm McKenna.

In 1964, at the height of the cold war, he visited Mongolia as a tourist in order to arrange for the resumption of field work in the Gobi Desert initiated by the American Museum's expeditions of the 1920s that were led by Roy Chapman Andrews and subsidized by Henry Clay Frick. These museum expeditions were finally resumed in the 1990s, resulting in remarkable fossil discoveries.  The Alf Museum is planning a paleontological expedition to the Gobi Desert for Webb faculty, alumni and families from July 8 to 20, 2008.

Dr. McKenna's life's work was a new, cladistics-based Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level—both living and extinct—that in 1997 he and Susan Bell of the American Museum of Natural History published in both book and database form.
Dr. McKenna was awarded the Romer-Simpson Prize of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists in 2003, and the Gold Medal of the Paleontological Society of America in 1992, the top honors in his profession.

In addition to his scientific activities, Dr. McKenna was a board member of numerous educational institutions. His father, Donald, a Webb trustee, was one of the founding trustees of Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif. Dr. McKenna also served as a Webb trustee from 1984 to 1990.

Dr. McKenna is survived by his wife of 55 years, Priscilla McKenna, of Boulder, Colo.; four children, Douglas, Andrew, Katharine and Bruce, their spouses and nine grandchildren. At the family’s suggestion, donations in memory of Malcolm McKenna may be sent to: The Malcolm C. McKenna Goler Research Fund, Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology, 1175 West Baseline Rd., Claremont, CA 91711.
A tribute to Dr. McKenna appears in the March 10th edition of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.