Fonds 1554 - McLennan/Parks family fonds

The McLennan/Parks Family is one with a long and influential association to the University of Toronto. Sir John C. McLennan put his mark on the teaching and research of physics at the University from his appointment as demonstrator in 1900 to his retirement in 1932 as Dean of the School of Graduate Studies and Chair of the Department of Physics. His sister, Jean McLennan was married to Prof. William Arthur Parks, who was head of the Department of Geology and director of the Palaeontology Museum of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1910 until his retirement in 1935. Their son, Arthur Ewart Park, was a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine (M.D. 1930) and was a noted Toronto doctor.

Sir John Cunningham McLennan, KBE, FRS, FRSC, physicist (born 14 April 1867 in Ingersoll, ON; died 9 October 1935 in Paris, France). After graduating in physics from the University of Toronto in 1892, McLennan worked as a demonstrator and in 1898 went to the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, England. In 1900 he received the first doctorate in physics from the University of Toronto. He spent his career at that university, bringing his physics laboratory to the forefront of research in radioactivity, spectroscopy and low-temperature physics.

During the First World War, McLennan was scientific adviser to the British Admiralty. In 1915, he was elected to the Royal Society of London (receiving its gold medal in 1928) and in 1917 received the Order of the British Empire. After the war he returned to the University of Toronto but spent each summer in Britain, becoming president of the scientific section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1923.

President of the Royal Canadian Institute in 1916, he helped found the National Research Council and was a member of the Ontario Research Foundation (established 1928). He resigned from the University of Toronto in 1932 and moved to England where he continued his pioneering research in the use of radium to treat cancer. He was knighted in 1935.

Born in Toronto, 9 January, 1907, son of William Arthur Parks, Professor of Geology. Arts, 1923-1927, BA 1927 (University College) ; Medicine, MD 1930. Died in Toronto, 198-.

Head of the Department of Geology and director of the Palaeontology Museum of the Royal Ontario Museum from 1910 until his retirement in 1935.