Lenore Fenton MacClain

MacClain was from Snohomish, Washington.{{Cite news |date=1937-06-26 |title=Keeps Speed Typing Title – Albert Tangora Taps 141 Words a Minute, Breaking Own Record |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1937/06/26/archives/keeps-speed-typing-title-albert-tangora-taps-141-words-a-minute.html |access-date=2022-03-15 |issn=0362-4331}} After briefly attending Whitman College,(1931) Catalogue of Whitman College; p. 115 she graduated from the University of Washington with undergraduate and master's degrees{{Cite news |date=30 April 1965 |title=Lenore MacClain wields able hand on gavel |periodical=Northern Virginia Sun |url=https://virginiachronicle.com/?a=d&d=NVS19650430.1.7&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22mrs.+george+macclain%22------- |access-date=2022-03-17 |via=Virginia Chronicle: Digital Newspaper Archive}} She worked as a high school teacherBasic and Advanced Typing. Education for Victory, November 15, 1943; p. 8 and married George MacClain, a colonel in the U.S. Army, in the late 1940s.

In 1937 MacClain won a novice typing award with a speed of 87 words per minute.{{Cite news |date=1937-07-10 |title=Armful of trophies for champ |pages=7 |work=Leader-Telegram |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97655624/armful-of-trophies-for-champ/ |access-date=2022-03-15}} She won again in 1938,{{Cite news |date=1938-07-07 |title=co-ed turned secretary cracks own record |pages=5 |work=The Sun and the Erie County Independent |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97655962/co-ed-turned-secretary-cracks-own-record/ |access-date=2022-03-15}} and in 1939 she broke her own transcription record and earned the title of "the world's greatest secretary".{{Cite news |date=1939-07-18 |title=Still the world's greatest secretary |pages=3 |work=Rogers County News |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97655854/still-the-worlds-greatest-secretary/ |access-date=2022-03-15}} Earlier, she won the world championship on a Dvorak keyboard in Tenth Annual International Commercial Schools Contest in Chicago, June 19, 1946, by typing 131 net words per minute.{{cite book |author=Arthur Toye Foulke |url=https://archive.org/details/Mr.Typewriter-ABiographyOfChristopherLathamSholes |title=Mr. Typewriter: A biography of Christopher Latham Sholes |year=1961 |page=[https://archive.org/details/Mr.Typewriter-ABiographyOfChristopherLathamSholes/page/n46 45] |chapter=Typewriter no longer a curiosity |asin=B0007DRUJY}} In 1956, Popular Science noted that she had won so many typing contests that she cancelled additional contests.{{Cite magazine |last= |first= |year=1956 |title=Why They Want to Shift the Keyboard |magazine=Popular Science |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NC0DAAAAMBAJ&dq=Lenore+Fenton+MacClain+-wikipedia&pg=PA280 |language=en |publisher=Bonnier Corporation |pages=280}} MacClain was listed in the 1971 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records for being the fastest typist in a one-hour timed test.{{Cite journal |last=Parkinson |first=Bob |date=1972 |title=How to Increase Your Typing Productivity |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/43151168 |journal=Technical Communication |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=9–11 |jstor=43151168 |issn=0049-3155}}

She became one of the students of August Dvorak and upon switching from a QWERTY layout to the Dvorak keyboard layout, MacClain increased her typing rate from 70 words per minute to 182 words per minute.{{Cite book |last=Hoult |first=Thomas Ford |url=http://archive.org/details/sociologyreading0000houl |title=Sociology readings for a new day |date=1979 |publisher=New York : Random House |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-394-32243-8 |pages=215}}{{cite news |date=1945-12-02 |title=Reform in typewriting |publisher=The American Weekly |url=https://archive.org/details/ReformInTypewriting}} MacClain's increased typing speed is given as an example in the discussions regarding the benefits of the Dvorak keyboard over the QWERTY layout.{{Cite news |last=Finney |first=Ruth |author-link=Ruth Finney|date=1945-10-14 |title=New keyboard steps up typing speed |pages=28 |work=The Knoxville News-Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97676695/new-keyboard-steps-up-typing-speed/ |access-date=2022-03-15}} While it was first reported that she could type 180 words per minute,{{cite news |date=1948-01-28 |title=Navy Inventor Presses War for New Keyboard to Speed Typewriting |publisher=Wall Street Journal}} this number later edited to be 108 words per minute.{{cite news |date=1943-12-01 |title=There is a better typewriter keyboard |publisher=National Business Education Quarterly |url=https://archive.org/details/ThereIsABetterTypewriterKeyboard}}{{cite book |author=Arthur Toye Foulke |url=https://archive.org/details/Mr.Typewriter-ABiographyOfChristopherLathamSholes |title=Mr. Typewriter: A biography of Christopher Latham Sholes |year=1961 |page=45,108 |chapter=Dvorak Simplified Keyboard |asin=B0007DRUJY}}

In 1943, she starred in United States Navy typewriting training videos, where she demonstrated proper touch typing technique, useful typewriter tips and tricks (such as rapid envelope addressing).{{Cite book |title=United States Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Motion Pictures and Filmstrips |date=1953 |publisher=United States Information Agency |pages=214 |language=en}}

In 1954, along with J. Frank Dame, she co-authored a book Typewriting Techniques and Short Cuts, which saw a few editions and was reviewed by the Journal of Business Education.{{Cite journal |date=1955-04-01 |title=The Book Shelf |url=https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.1955.10115826 |journal=The Journal of Business Education |volume=30 |issue=7 |pages=329–330 |doi=10.1080/08832323.1955.10115826 |issn=0021-9444|url-access=subscription }} MacClain and her techniques are used as examples on how to type,{{Cite book |last=Lamb |first=Marion Minerva |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhoXAAAAIAAJ&q=lenore+fenton+macclain |title=Your First Year of Teaching Typewriting |date=1947 |publisher=South-western publishing Company |language=en}} and from 1951 until 1958 she was a typing instructor at Bolling Air Force Base.{{Cite news |last=Eads |first=Jane |date=1955-08-11 |title=Washington Letter |pages=4 |work=News-Pilot |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97753085/washington-letter/ |access-date=2022-03-16}} She taught people as young as fifth grade typing using either the QWERTY layout or the Dvorak keyboard.{{Cite news |date=1975-03-30 |title='Ignored' typewriter plan gains interest |pages=17 |work=The Knoxville News-Sentinel |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97754477/ignored-typewriter-plan-gains-interest/ |access-date=2022-03-16}}

MacClain and her husband moved to Arlington County, Virginia. She was the president of the Virginia chapter of the P.E.O. Sisterhood educational organization,{{Cite news |date=1964-10-27 |title=PEO Board Co-Ordinates Work of Peninsula Chapters |pages=47 |work=Daily Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97755130/peo-board-co-ordinates-work-of/ |access-date=2022-03-16}}{{Cite news |date=1964-10-18 |title=PEO chapters will entertain Virginia state president |pages=19 |work=Daily Press |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/97755402/peo-chapters-will-entertain-virginia/ |access-date=2022-03-16}} and in that position led the state-wide convention in 1965.

She died on March 9, 2005, in Williamsburg, Virginia,{{cite news|url=http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/washingtonpost/obituary.aspx?n=lenore-fenton-macclain&pid=3311141|title=Lenore Fenton MacClain obituary|date=20 March 2005|accessdate=20 November 2017}} and was buried at the Arlington National Cemetery in the same plot as her husband, who died on June 6, 1994.{{Cite web |title=LENORE FENTON MACCLAIN |url=https://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-xpm-20050312-2005-03-12-0503120130-story.html |access-date=2022-03-17 |website=Daily Press |date=12 March 2005 |language=en}} Her Electromatic typewriter with a Dvorak Simplified Keyboard layout is in the collection of the National Museum of American History.{{cite web|url=http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1064590|title=IBM Electromatic Typewriter|accessdate=20 November 2017}}

• {{Cite book |last1=MacClain |first1=Lenore Fenton |url=https://www.amazon.com/Typewriting-techniques-short-15-minute-writings/dp/B0007FQECG/ref=sr_1_1?crid=8145EXHMRZJ8&keywords=%22lenore+fenton+macclain%22&qid=1647435138&sprefix=lenore+fenton+macclain+,aps,49&sr=8-1 |title=Typewriting techniques and short cuts in 15-minute timed writings |last2=Dame |first2=J. Frank |date=1948-01-01 |publisher=South-western |language=English}}
• {{Cite book |last=MacClain |first=Lenore Fenton |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Lc8HQAACAAJ |title=Typewriting Techniques and Short Cuts; with 10-minute Timed Writings |date=1961 |publisher=South-Western Publishing Company |language=en}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{YouTube|id=H1e4BC41wRU|title=Basic Typing: Methods. Vol. MN-1512a. United States Navy Training Film, 1943}}
• {{YouTube|id=b-REJEArnjE|title=Basic Typing: Machine Operation. Vol. MN-1512b. United States Navy Training Film, 1943}}
• {{YouTube|id=JUJfCfqgsX0|title=Advanced Typing: Shortcuts. Vol. MN-1512c. United States Navy Training Film, 1943}}
• {{YouTube|id=7ve5JnTUzvo|title=Advanced Typing: Duplicating and Manuscript. Vol. MN-1512d. United States Navy Training Film, 1943}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:MacClain, Lenore Fenton}}

Category:1912 births

Category:2005 deaths

Category:Burials at Arlington National Cemetery

Category:Typists

Category:Women educational theorists

Category:20th-century American educational theorists

Category:20th-century women educational theorists

Category:American textbook writers

Category:American women textbook writers

Category:People from Arlington County, Virginia

Category:People from Snohomish, Washington