Colin `Mac' Mclennan, 77, Proudly Stood Up For Beliefs

"Mac," as Colin McLennan's friends called him, was the kind of man who always stood up for what he thought was right, even if it cost him customers.

His views against the Vietnam War not only occasionally lost him clients for his business as an accountant, but it got him on President Nixon's list of enemies. Eventually, said Mr. McLennan's wife, Verna, he was asked to leave his work with the Boy Scouts because of his anti-war views.

"He really put his money where his mouth was," friend Gordon Greimes said. "He was a CPA, and he would withhold however much of his money he thought was going to the war effort."

Mr. McLennan died Friday (July 23) of a heart-related illness. He was 77.

His friend, Russ Braley, a journalist and writer who had traded political missives with Mr. McLennan for years, recently told his friends that "he didn't know who he could write to now who would react," Greimes said.

A group that began as kids playing poker in the cafeteria at Lincoln High School in Seattle went on to the University of Washington together, until one of them was put in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.

Mr. McLennan and his friends would go to Puyallup, where Ken Tenaka was being held. And when Tenaka was moved, they traveled to Idaho, where they snuck liquor into the camp for a party, Greimes said.

Later, Mr. McLennan would serve as director of the Snohomish County Human Relations Council and of the Washington State Coalition Against Discrimination, which worked to deny state liquor licenses to fraternal organizations that didn't admit African Americans.

"He challenged them all about it," his wife said. "He didn't like to see people mistreated. He didn't like to see people get run over."

Born in Bellingham on Jan. 16, 1922, he was the son of a farmer-longshoreman-logger-seaman nicknamed "Big Mac" and was known to his friends as "Little Mac."

His father was a longtime union organizer who worked on many waterfronts in the Puget Sound area, Velma McLennan said. The experience taught Mr. McLennan a love of the sea. He served in the merchant marine during World II, then earned his captain's license and was skipper of the ferry Kalakala for a short time, she said.

Mr. McLennan is survived by his wife of 52 years; his sons, Gordon Scoles of Seattle and Corey McLennan of Woodway; and daughter Colette McLennan of Seattle.

A Chipupuguendere (chee-poo-poo-gwen-dairy), an African word for "celebration," will be held at the family home in Edmonds anytime after 2 p.m. Sunday.

Remembrances are suggested to The Kalakala Foundation, 154 N. 35th St., Seattle, WA 98103.