In Memoriam

George Ross. Marion County historian George Ross of Sandoval died on Friday, February 15, 2002. Mr. Ross, a past president of the Marion County Genealogical and Historical Society, was 74. Mr. Ross, who served on the faculties of Greenville College, Western Illinois University, and the University of Illinois, was also a teacher and principal in the Centralia City Schools and a past president of the district's teachers association. According to an obituary that ran in the Centralia Morning Sentinel, he was "known throughout the community as the consummate source of even the smallest details concerning the history of Marion County," a veritable "walking encyclopedia" of local history and lore. For years Mr. Ross authored a weekly column called "A Peek at Our Past," which ran in the Centralia Sentinel, the Salem Times-Commoner, and the Marion County Crier. In 1992, the Illinois State Historical Society awarded Mr. Ross "The Friend of History Award." Nancy Rothschild, executive director of the Centralia Area Historical Society, called Mr. Ross "irreplaceable." "The loss of Dr. George Ross, our great historian, is deeply felt and will be missed by his many colleagues and friends. His historic knowledge and sage advice has been invaluable to our museum."

Edward T. McBroom of Leawood, Kansas, formerly of Park Ridge, Illinois, died July 22, 2001 at the age of 80. Mr. McBroom, an ISHS life member since 1968, was a graduate of Canton High School (1938). He. earned his B.A. (1942) and M.A. (1947) degrees in Bacteriology-Chemistry, with a minor in History and Political Science, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1949 he was hired as a chemist by Armour Laboratories of Chicago, where he performed vitamin assays on pharmaceutical products. Later he worked at the Central Soya Company predecessor of the Glidden Company, before moving on to the Hi-Life Packing Company, a manufacturer of pet foods, from which he retired. A life-long student of Illinois history, Mr. McBroom was buried in Canton's Greenwood Cemetery.

Andrew McNally III, an ISHS life member since 1972, passed away on November 15 at his home in Chicago. Mr. McNally, former president of Rand McNally & Co., was born August 17, 1909, in Chicago. After graduating from The Hill School, Pottstown, Pennsylvania (1927) and Yale University (1931), he joined Rand McNally, working initially out of the New York office, where he met and married Margaret Clark MacMillin in 1936. Mr. McNally was appointed a vice president and director of the publishing firm in 1933. During World War II he was a captain in the Army Corps of Engineers Map Services at St. Louis, Missouri. He returned to the business after the war and became president in 1948, serving for 26 years. Mr. McNally was a past president and life trustee of the Art Institute of Chicago and the Chicago Historical Society; a past president of the Geographic Society of Chicago; a past president and honorary director of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago; and past chairman and member of the Illinois Bicentennial Commission. He received an honorary doctorate of human letters from St. Lawrence University (1986) and from Lincoln College in 1995. He was preceded in death by his wife, who died in 1982. Mr. McNally is survived by his sons Andrew IV and Edward C., both of Chicago; and a daughter, Betsy McNally Ravenel of Rochester, New York.

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