MCMULLAN, Madeleine Monica
Madeleine Monica McMullan, nee Engel de Jánosi, died on October 1, 2021 surrounded by family at her home in Lake Forest, Illinois. She was 92.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Carlette (Kalmus) and Friedrich Engel de Jánosi; and her husband, James Michael McMullan (June 27, 1934-April 16, 2012).
Madeleine was born in Vienna,
Austria in 1928. After Nazis seized the family estate, Madeleine and her parents fled to Lyons, France in 1939, where relatives hid them. Eventually, the family settled in England, where Madeleine taught herself English reading the dictionary. When the Johns Hopkins University history department offered Friedrich a teaching position, the family reunited and emigrated to the United States. Madeleine graduated from Stone Ridge School of the Sacred Heart in Baltimore, Maryland, where her mother taught French and Art History. Madeleine earned
her B.A. in English from Trinity College in Washington D.C., and her M.A. in History from Johns Hopkins University in 1952. She wrote for The Evening Star before becoming an intelligence officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.).
In 1957, at a party in Washington, D.C., Madeleine met a young man from Newton, Mississippi who was visiting his sister. Three days later, James McMullan proposed. They married and moved to Mississippi where Madeleine taught at East Central Junior College and then Millsaps College, where she became Associate Professor. She taught European History and co-authored an integrated Humanities program that
was awarded a Ford Foundation grant. Madeleine also served as president of the Mississippi Art Association
and the Opera Guild board.
When her husband took a job in the securities business with William Blair & Company in Chicago in 1969, they moved to Lake Forest, Illinois. Madeleine focused on philanthropy and volunteer work at Holy Family Church in Chicago, the Women’s Board of Lake Forest Hospital, the Chicago Botanic Garden, and the Chicago Historical Society. Madeleine also became a founding member of the Infant Welfare Society of Chicago, where she volunteered for decades, focusing on helping immigrants fill the gap in their health care coverage. In 2004, Madeleine and James established the Madeleine and James McMullan-Carl E. Eybel, MD Chair of Excellence in Clinical Cardiology, and endowed a Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory for the new wing at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago.
After her husband’s death in 2012, Madeleine continued her philanthropic foundation work providing generous education grants, scholarships, and funding to numerous non-profit organizations including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Public Library, the Mississippi Museum of Art, the Mississippi Book Festival, the Eudora Welty Foundation, Millsaps College, the University of Mississippi, Newton High School, Pass Christian High School, and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Madeleine also initiated paid internships at the Art Institute of Chicago for students who have been historically underrepresented in the arts community.
Madeleine is survived by her two daughters, Carlette McMullan of Lake Forest, Illinois, and her husband John Gibbons; Margaret McMullan of Pass Christian, Mississippi, and her husband Patrick O’Connor; and two grandchildren, Madeleine Honor Gibbons and James Raymond Engel de Jánosi O’Connor of Washington, D.C.
Madeleine is also survived by her cousins Dr. Daniel Serin of Chateaurenard, France; Anna Stein of Paris, France and Gabor Szikla of Granby, Connecticut, among the last surviving Engel de Jánosi relatives Madeleine met for the first time in 2013.
There will be a Funeral Mass at St. Patrick’s Little Church, 991 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, IL 60045 on Tuesday, October 5 at 10:00 a.m. Madeleine will be interred with her beloved husband of 55 years at the Masonic Cemetery in Newton, Mississippi. Donations may be sent in memory of Madeleine McMullan to Most Blessed Trinity Parish, 450 Keller Avenue, Waukegan, IL 60085. Info: Wenban Funeral Home, Lake Forest (847) 234-0022 or www.wenbanfh.com