[PRCo] Re: "Mac" McGrew

[Bob Rathke]

I knew Mac since the late 1950's (PERC), and later when he was at Ketchum (I 
worked there too for a short time).  He wrote a column ("Type Talk") for a 
Pittsburgh graphic arts magazine, and in the mid-1970's we saw each other at 
anti-Skybus meetings in the South Hills.

I believe that Mac created the all-time Pittsburgh trolley map published by 
PERC in 1959, and still available at PTM.

Bob 3/12/07


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Derrick J Brashear" <shadow at dementia.org>
To: <pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org>
Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 9:24 AM
Subject: [PRCo] "Mac" McGrew


> John Swindler pointed this out.
>
>  News Obituaries
> Obituary: M.F. "Mac" McGrew / Foremost authority on metal typefaces, 
> worked at
> Ketchum
> June 1, 1912 - Feb. 28, 2007
>
> Sunday, March 04, 2007
> By Mike Bucsko, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
>
> At age 14, M.F. "Mac" McGrew bought a Kelsey Excelsior printing press, 
> designed
> as a "parlour press" for hobbyists.
>
> It was the beginning of Mr. McGrew's lifelong love of printing and 
> typesetting,
> a romance that culminated six decades later in his publication of a 
> reference
> book on American metal typefaces that has become the bible on the subject.
>
> Seen as the leading authority on typefaces, Mr. McGrew received inquiries 
> from
> around the world from those in the printing and design business who were
> stumped by a certain typeface, said Mr. McGrew's son, Jon, of Kingston, 
> N.Y.
>
> Mr. McGrew was also one of the founders of the Pennsylvania Trolley Museum 
> in
> Chartiers, Washington County.
>
> Mr. McGrew, 94, died Wednesday of complications from pneumonia at the 
> Asbury
> Heights retirement community in Mt. Lebanon, where he had lived for the 
> past 20
> years.
>
> Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., Marion Foreman McGrew moved to Crafton with 
> his
> parents and younger sister in 1916. Mr. McGrew's interest in typefaces may 
> have
> first been stirred by his father, Carl, an architect who specialized in
> inscriptional lettering, that is part of the architecture of buildings. 
> The
> Chamber of Commerce Building, Downtown, is an example of Carl McGrew's 
> work,
> said Lucinda Dyjak of Ben Avon, Mac McGrew's daughter.
>
> In high school. Mr. McGrew experimented with typewriter typefaces and 
> their use
> in portraits. A typewriter typeface portrait he made of President Franklin 
> D.
> Roosevelt later appeared in "Ripley's Believe It or Not," his daughter 
> said.
>
> Mr. McGrew worked at a few printing companies in Pittsburgh while he 
> attended
> the Carnegie Institute of Technology, now Carnegie Mellon University, 
> before he
> opened his own print shop in Crafton. After a stint in the Army during 
> World
> War II, Mr. McGrew moved back to Pittsburgh and continued to work in the
> printing business.
>
> In 1950, Mr. McGrew got a job as the typographic director at what became 
> the
> Ketchum Advertising agency. He worked at Ketchum until his retirement in 
> 1977.
>
> Over the years, Mr. McGrew wrote hundreds of articles about typefaces for
> various publications. He began work when he retired on his classic 
> reference,
> American Metal Typefaces of the Twentieth Century, which was first 
> published in
> 1986.
>
> Mr. McGrew's encyclopedic knowledge of typefaces made him the person to 
> seek
> for companies and individuals with questions, including Adobe and other
> companies that design computer software for the printing and graphic 
> design
> business, his son said.
>
> In addition to his son and daughter, Mr. McGrew is survived by a grandson. 
> A
> memorial service for Mr. McGrew will be at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday at Asbury
> Heights, 700 Bower Hill Road, Mt. Lebanon.
>