Rev. Frank M. McClain, 74, an Episcopal priest who charmed parishioners at Christ Church-on-the-Hill in Winnetka with his colorful stories and understated wit, died of a heart attack Friday, Dec. 15, in his Charleston, S.C., home. He was a resident of South Carolina since retiring as rector of the Winnetka church in 1991. “He was a real character. He was a Southern boy, and he was an intellectual, but he was still a regular guy,” said his friend, Bill Powell. He added that Father McClain’s boyhood in the South, education in England and wartime service as an infantryman in the South Pacific gave the priest an interesting accumulation of skills that stood out on the North Shore where he served. A noted theological writer and educator, Father McClain also could ride a horse, hunt, fish and tell war stories that were both humorous and poignant, Powell said. Father McClain served as an adjunct professor at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, organized speakers programs for the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago and helped to build up membership at Christ Church in Winnetka. Born in Louisiana, Father McClain graduated from high school in Memphis and was drafted into the Army during World War II. He won a Danforth Fellowship after the war to attend Yale University. He received an undergraduate degree from Yale in 1948, followed by a bachelor’s in theology from Cambridge University in England. He graduated in 1952 from the General Theological Seminary in New York and was ordained the next year in Memphis. He served briefly at small country parishes in Tennessee, but returned to Cambridge for a master’s degree in 1955. He met his future wife while teaching religion at Sweet Briar College in Virginia in the 1960s, and after earning a PhD in theology from Cambridge in 1969, remained at Christ Church in Winnetka. Initially an associate rector, he was named rector of the church in 1977. He is survived by his wife, Mary Lee; three daughters, Rebecca Newton, Mary Lee Renken and Katherine McClain; a brother, Richard, and two grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in Christ Church, 784 Sheridan Rd., Winnetka.
