Malcolm McKenna

McKenna began his paleontology career at the Webb School of California (grades 9-12) in Claremont, California, under noted paleontologist and teacher, Raymond Alf. He attended the California Institute of Technology and Pomona College, then graduated in paleontology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also earned his Ph.D.

He was the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Through most of his four decades at the museum, he held a professorship in geosciences at Columbia University. From 1975 to 1976 he served as president of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.{{cite web |title=Past Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology |url=http://vertpaleo.org/the-Society/Leadership/SVP_Past_Presidents.aspx |publisher=Society of Vertebrate Paleontology}}

With Susan K. Bell, he co-authored the 1997 book Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level, a comprehensive work genealogy of Mammalia, including the systematics, relationships, and occurrences of all Mammal taxa, living and extinct, down through the rank of genus.{{cite book|last1=McKenna|first1=Malcolm C.|last2=Bell|first2=Susan K.|last3=Simpson|first3=George Gaylord|title=Classification of Mammals Above the Species Level|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OLYifwU8bqQC&pg=PP1|year=1997|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-11012-9}} In 1992 he was awarded the Paleontological Society Medal and the Romer-Simpson Medal in 2000, the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology’s highest honor.

McKenna was born in Pomona, California, the son of Bernice and Donald McKenna, a founding trustee of Claremont McKenna College in Southern California.{{Cite news |last=Wilford |first=John Noble |date=2008-03-10 |title=Malcolm McKenna, 77, Fossil Seeker, Dies |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/10/science/10mckenna.html |access-date=2023-10-13 |issn=0362-4331}}Malcolm_McKenna (amnh.org)

He was a resident of Englewood, New Jersey, while he was at the American Museum of Natural History. His wife, Priscilla, had served as President of the City Council for many years.{{cite book |last=Elliott |first=Ann Brimacombe |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PO46sAIx_98C&pg=PA80 |title=Charming the Bones: A Portrait of Margaret Matthew Colbert |page=80 |publisher=Kent State University Press |year=2000 |isbn=0-87338-648-5 |quote=The McKennas were not strictly Leonians. They lived in the next town, Englewood. Malcolm McKenna was a colleague of Ned's, a paleontologist at the American Museum. His wife, Priscilla, played the harpsichord professionally in New York and some years later became mayor of Englewood.}} A great-grandparent was a cousin of the steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

Since 2013, McKenna has been listed on the Advisory Council of the National Center for Science Education.{{cite web |url=https://ncse.com/about/advisory-council |title=Advisory Council |website=ncse.com |publisher=National Center for Science Education |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20130810112828/https://ncse.com/about/advisory-council |archivedate=2013-08-10 |accessdate=2018-10-30}}

McKenna's son, Bruce, is a screenwriter whose work has included the television miniseries The Pacific.{{cite news |last=Rohan |first=Virginia |url=http://www.northjersey.com/arts_entertainment/87610472_For_Englewood_native___Pacific__journey_took_years.html |title=Englewood native's work on HBO's The Pacific started in 2002 |work=The Record (Bergen County) |date=March 14, 2010 |accessdate=July 22, 2011 |quote=Born 48 years ago today at Englewood Hospital, McKenna always gravitated to history. His late father, Malcolm, was an eminent paleontologist based at New York's American Museum of Natural History. (His mom, Priscilla, who now lives in Boulder, Colo., is a former Englewood City Council president.)}}

McKenna's daughter, Katharine L. McKenna, is an artist living in Woodstock, NY.{{Cite web |title=Bio {{!}} K.L. McKenna |url=https://www.klmckenna.com/bio |access-date=2023-10-13 |website=KLM Studio |language=en}}

Malcolm Carnegie McKenna died on March 3, 2008, in Boulder, Colorado.{{cite news |title=Malcolm Carnegie McKenna |work=Jackson Hole Star Tribune |date=March 8, 2008 |url=http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/03/08/news/obituaries/ce1e166f7629da6187257404006fd8f2.txt |access-date=March 10, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170731203850/http://www.jacksonholestartrib.com/articles/2008/03/08/news/obituaries/ce1e166f7629da6187257404006fd8f2.txt |archive-date=July 31, 2017 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikispecies|Malcolm C. McKenna}}

• {{Cite web

| title = Malcolm Carnegie McKenna, 77, Paleontologist

| publisher = American Museum of Natural History

| url = http://research.amnh.org/paleontology/f/Malcolm_McKenna.pdf

}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:McKenna, Malcolm}}

Category:1930 births

Category:2008 deaths

Category:American paleontologists

Category:Columbia University faculty

Category:People associated with the American Museum of Natural History

Category:Writers from Englewood, New Jersey

Category:People from Pomona, California

Category:University of California, Berkeley alumni

Category:Pomona College alumni

Category:Presidents of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology

Category:Writers from Los Angeles County, California