Frances B. McAllister
September 17, 1910 - August 3, 2008
A Memorial Service will be held at 10 a.m. at
the Museum of Northern Arizona on September 17, 2008
Leading philanthropist
dies at 97
Frances B.
McAllister leaves a legacy of generosity unparalleled in Flagstaff history
By
DAILY SUN STAFF
Monday, August 04, 2008
Frances Burt McAllister, a philanthropist and leader in Flagstaff and Arizona
for the past four decades, died at her home in Flagstaff Aug. 3, 2008. She was
97.
Her support for virtually every nonprofit institution
in Flagstaff is legend. Dr. Walter Taylor, her longtime friend and physician
stated, "I can think of no other individual who has done more for our community
in so many ways. She will be missed but will live on through all of her good
works." Robert Breunig, director of the Museum of Northern Arizona, stated,
"Frances not only endowed the Museum financially, she endowed us with her
generous spirit and her determination that the Museum always reflect the highest
quality and best values of our society."
McAllister's commitment extended beyond Flagstaff.
Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard noted, "Frances was a lady determined to
improve the world she lived in on a local to international level. And she did
it."
MOVED HERE
PERMANENTLY IN 1967
An activist with passion, McAllister moved permanently
to Flagstaff in 1967 after years of coming to the Log House she built with her
husband, John Vickers McAllister, in 1935. She leaves a legacy of commitment and
caring, especially to northern Arizona.
She is perhaps best known for establishing the
Transition Foundation and endowing The Arboretum at Flagstaff. Her dedication to
community included establishing the Chair in Community, Culture and the
Environment at Northern Arizona University. She endowed an annual doctoral
research stipend in the NAU History Department and supported the Biology
Department in its early years.
In 2002 NAU awarded Frances McAllister an Honorary
Doctor of Humane Letters degree. She has been a board member and past president
for both the Museum of Northern Arizona and the Flagstaff Symphony Association
boards. She was an honorary Trustee at Lowell Observatory. She served as a
member of the Arizona Board of Education's Committee on Basic Goals for Social
Studies, the Arizona Humanities Council, the Arizona Commission on the Arts, and
the State Advisory Committee for the White House Conference on Library and
Information Services.
McAllister had a driving interest in and compassion for
the education and welfare of young children. In Pasadena, Calif, she was a
founding member and Acting President of Pacific Oaks School and taught in the
pre-school, at Occidental College and U.C.L.A. When she moved to Flagstaff, she
was the staff trainer for the Head Start program and later helped establish the
Coconino Coalition for Children and Youth. She remained active in her support of
children's programs the rest of her life.
A DAILY SUN CITIZEN
OF THE YEAR
McAllister did not seek recognition and made it clear
that her gifts represented her husband John's legacy.
Nonetheless, she was repeatedly acknowledged for her
good leadership and generosity. This included being named Arizona Daily Sun
Citizen of the Year in 1983, receiving the "Women of Distinction" Award from the
Soroptimist International of Flagstaff in 1990 and 1999, the Regents Award and
the Governor's Arts Award in Support of the Arts in 1998, and the Board Chair
Award from United Way of Northern Arizona in 2004.
She was a trustee at the Center for Democratic
Institutions in Santa Barbara founded by Robert Hutchins, and The International
Ocean Institute in Malta founded by Elisabeth Mann Borgese. She was also an
ardent supporter of the Long Marine Lab at U.C. Santa Cruz and helped develop
the UCSC library in its early years.
She was active in the political process and an ardent
Democrat. She held numerous fundraisers for candidates on the national, state
and local level, and was vocal in her support for issues involving peace and
social justice, the environment, and education, always supporting policies to
empower the disenfranchised. According to her friend Patrice Horstman, "She was
a tremendous role model and mentor for many of us."
MADE NIXON'S
'ENEMIES LIST'
The commitment that held the whole of McAllister's
dedication to community in place was her Quaker faith, which began shortly after
her marriage to John Vickers McAllister in 1936. In 1968 she was a founding
member of the Flagstaff Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, and
served both her Meeting, the Intermountain Yearly Meeting, and various national
and international committees of the American Friends Service Committee and the
Friends Committee on National Legislation. She traveled extensively throughout
her life beginning in 1934 when, among other things she attended the Women's
International League for Peace and Freedom and volunteered as a translator where
she worked with Eleanor Roosevelt. Her work for peace earned her the distinction
of being on Richard Nixon's "Enemies List."
Frances McAllister is survived by her son and
daughter-in-law, John and Traci McAllister of Garden Grove, Calif.; her twin
grandsons, Michael (Liz) and James (Susan), and three great-granddaughters,
Nicole, Katie and Lauren; her sister, Jeannette Kastorff of Bakersfield, Calif.;
and her beloved cousins and friends.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be
made to The Arboretum at Flagstaff, the Museum of Northern Arizona, or the
American Friends Service Committee for their relentless work for peace. A
celebration of her life will be held in the Quaker tradition at 10 a.m. at the
Museum of Northern Arizona on what would have been her 98th birthday, Sept. 17,
2008.
McAllister to receive Livable Community Award
From an Oct. 26, 2002, story by Becky Pallack in the
Arizona Daily Sun
Frances McAllister, long-time Flagstaff resident and
supporter of numerous community endeavors, will be awarded the Friends of
Flagstaff's Future Livable Community Award at the group's annual meeting today.
The event begins at 7 p.m. at the Branigar-Chase Hall
of the Museum of Northern Arizona. McAllister was nominated by many members of
the group and was selected from a pool of 20 nominees.
"Frances McAllister is renowned for her active support
of and involvement in environmental, arts and community issues," said Becky
Daggett, executive director of Friends of Flagstaff's Future. "She is truly
deserving of this award given her demonstrated belief in supporting efforts that
help to make Flagstaff a stronger community and a better place to live."
The award is given annually to a resident who works to
strengthen community and whose work comes not from any desire for public
recognition, but from a deeply held value that committed citizens can make
significant contributions to their community. Nominees are considered based on
their creativity, ability to enlist others in their efforts, and their
inspiration to fellow community members.
Besides Friends of Flagstaff's Future, McAllister
supports the Arboretum of Flagstaff, the Grand Canyon Trust, Lowell Observatory,
the Museum of Northern Arizona, NAU's Program in Community, Culture and the
Environment, and the Suzuki Program in local public schools.
Other organizations include the International Ocean
Institute, the Pasadena Symphony Orchestra, the Arizona Commission on the Arts
and Arizona Town Hall.
She first fell in love with Flagstaff in 1935 while
traveling by train from Los Angeles to New York. The man who would later become
her husband purchased land to the west of town, part of what is now the
Arboretum.
She moved to Flagstaff permanently in 1967 and immersed
herself in civic pursuits.
She helped create the Glendale Community College School
District in Glendale, Calif., during her high school years. She then became a
member of the first class.
McAllister is Arboretum's largest benefactor
From an Oct. 23, 2005, story by Cyndy Cole in the
Arizona Daily Sun
Arboretum founder Frances McAllister donated the land
for the arboretum in the early 1980s, along with her 1960s house. The site was
formerly a ranch and is now also home to a 1930s log cabin that she and her
husband built for summertime use.
McAllister was an amateur gardener. Her parents only
trusted her to water carrots in their Southern California garden, she said with
a laugh.
She is still the arboretum's largest benefactor, thanks
to the endowment she established.
The nonprofit isn't awash in extra cash and the staff
doesn't get rich working the land and giving tours and lectures to some 18,000
visitors each year, but the place is not on shaky ground financially, McAllister
contended.
She hopes to see more scientific research there.
Northern Arizona University is about to break ground there on a housing facility
and classroom that will be used to study climate change and biodiversity.
"There are many things I'd like to see and I may not
live to see them because I'm 95 now, but I have confidence that this institution
will be part of the culture of this whole northern part of the state for a long
time," she said.
