For a Good Cause -- JERRY McCLELLAN

--Story by Paul Clinton; photo by Greg Fry

Jerry McClellan’s love of boating drew him to the Newport Harbor

Nautical Museum when he needed an activity to occupy his time during his

golden years.

Since 1996, McClellan, 77, has chipped in when museum managers need

someone to lead docent tours, organize the library and complete other

needed tasks.

“Originally, it was to keep busy,” McClellan said. “I’m not one to sit

around and read.”

McClellan’s latest gig -- bringing needed order to the museum’s

overflowing collection of boating books and photos -- has taken the

lion’s share of his time, about three hours a week, in recent months.

When he’s not volunteering at the nautical museum, McClellan hangs out

with his buddies at the Balboa Yacht Club, where he has held the position

of fleet captain.

McClellan has also volunteered at Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona

del Mar, doing so from 1989 to 1990.

The gardens were near his home, which he has lived in since 1962, but

he said he didn’t have the passion for that work.

Sailing has always been his favorite leisure-time activity. During his

time in the city, McClellan has owned a string of sailboats -- usually 25

to 30 feet long.

McClellan moved to the city in 1962 to take a job as an assistant

principal at Corona del Mar High School, where he stayed for 25 years. By

the late 1980s, he was ready for retirement.

The nautical museum offers McClellan a chance to spend his time around

the thing he loves, he said. While he was organizing the museum’s

library, he said he often was distracted when an interesting book crossed

his path, taking a moment or two to leaf through an intriguing title.

McClellan also dismantles and installs nautical exhibits on the

museum’s second floor. Those exhibits rotate every three to five months.