McLennon, Peter James

Peter McLennon had many stories to tell about a life he was never entirely at ease in. The beloved father of Sarah and Paula McLennan, and husband of the late Phyllis Stepak McLennon, Peter McLennon died at his Chicago home January 27 at the ago of 80 after suffering for months from a wasting muscular disease. His family and friends will gather the afternoon of February 25 at Chief O’Neill’s restaurant, 3471 N. Elston, to celebrate his memory.

The son of a physician, a graduate of Fenwick High School who’d also attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary, Peter would relate with lofty modesty the wayward nature of his higher education. The University of Illinois at Chicago awarded him degrees in history and statistics, but these prizes came 11 and a half years after he set foot on the undergrad trail; on the way he enrolled at six other schools, and at other times he was an Army drill sergeant in Louisiana grooming recruits for Vietnam, and also a deckhand o n the Great Lakes ore carrier the Edmund Fitzgerald. In later life, as a family man, he did research for the ad agency Foote, Cone & Belding and advised on policy and election procedures for former Cook County clerk David Orr. He expertly expounded on the nuances of beer marketing; and held court on the security hazards of voting machines. And for a time he owned his own printing company, Otis, a name he shared with his brother, Bob, founder and leader of the Wisconsin blues band Otis and the Alligators. In 1992 Peter was chief researcher for Carol Moseley Braun when she ran successfully for the U.S. Senate. He eschewed her 1998 campaign for reelection, which she lost. Once, as a test of fortitude and quest for solitude, he bicycled alone from Texas to Chicago. Peter’s stories, as well as his judgments on the world as he knows experienced it., mixed merriment with scorn and scholarship. About saints and medieval schisms he was never wrong. He understood polling as few do; data lured him. Though once married he moved no farther from Chicago than Oak Park, he seemed never settled. His family moved often; once Peter and Phyllis bought a three-flat and moved three times — first into it, and twice more by changing floors. In addition to the two daughters who shared his itinerancy, survivors include Peter’s son-in-law, P.J. Klapperich; Piper, Skyler, and Oscar Klapperich; a sister, MaryEllen Pollock; and his brother.

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