As dedicated members of the Department of Museum Volunteers (DMV), Rodger and Joann McLennan led countless tours over the past 20 years, enrapturing visitors with their infectious enthusiasm and deep knowledge of the Museum’s collections.
Joann, a native New Yorker, met Rodger while visiting a friend in Windsor, Ontario, in the late 1960s. Call it happenstance: a month later she moved to Canada, and they were married within a year. When Rodger got a job with the Scarborough Public Library in 1975, the couple settled in Toronto’s historic Cabbagetown. The affinity they would develop for the ROM would inevitably follow a similar trajectory.
“She was larger than life,” remarks Marguerite Low, a long-time ROM supporter and fellow member of “The Martini Club,” a close knit group of volunteers that formed from the friendships developed over years of service to the Museum. In addition to their time offered as volunteers, the McLennans financially supported numerous initiatives at the ROM. In 2009, they established the then-modest Rodger and Joann McLennan Endowment Fund, to support research in natural history and world cultures.
The McLennan fund now provides a much-needed resource for ROM experts to conduct important fieldwork, pursue new research, and spark global collaborations that span disciplines—activities that enable the ROM’s collections to inspire wonder and discovery. This legacy will engender the McLennans’ same love of learning for visitors of all ages at the Museum, today and for generations to come.
Join the Currelly Legacy Society! Named after the first director of the ROM, the Currelly Legacy Society offers members who have made a planned gift to the Museum exclusive access to special events, including lectures and luncheons with ROM curators. To learn more about leaving a legacy at the ROM, contact Janice Correa at janicec@rom.on.ca or 416.586.5578.