Great-grandmother, professor, champion of Claremont artists, CLMA was 100

Marguerite Loyau McIntosh led a long and remarkable life full of art and culture, from Paris to Claremont. She died peacefully at age 100 on November 22 at her home in Mt. San Antonio Gardens. A vibrant member of the Claremont art scene for more than 70 years, Marguerite McIntosh will long be remembered as the founding president of the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art.

She was born in Paris on August 11, 1925. Her mother Jeanne was an impressionist painter. Her father Marcel Loyau was an officer in World War I and a successful sculptor. His biggest commission was for eight massive bronze seahorses for the Buckingham Fountain in Chicago in 1927. Their stately home and gardens in Paris filled an entire city block. But Marcel died just before the beginning of World War II when Marguerite was just 11 years old. The banks failed, finances were meager, and her mother was left with five children to raise.

Painting of Marguerite Loyau by her grandfather Charles Morance c.1929.

As a young teenager, she attended the Legion of Honor and had been accepted into a French ballet company when the Germans invaded Paris and the family fled to central France to live near her grandfather Charles Morancé, an accomplished artist.

While earning a degree from Beaux-Arts de Paris, she was an active member of the French Resistance, performing intelligence work in Paris and aiding the fighters in the countryside during the summer. A video of her recalling her experiences can be found on YouTube.

After World War II ended, she came to Pomona College on a Fulbright Fellowship for one year in 1949-50. Here she met Harrison McIntosh in the ceramics department at Scripps College. A year later Harrison began writing to her, proposed, and sent her a boat ticket to return to the U.S. In January 1952, they were one of the first couples married in the newly built Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Church in Claremont. Daughter Catherine was born two years later. Harrison began a life-long successful career as a ceramic artist. They built a house and studio in Padua Hills in 1958 with many artist friends in the neighborhood.

Through the 1960s, she taught French and French literature at Scripps College and earned her master’s degree at the Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University). In 1969, she began teaching French at Mt. San Antonio College. When she retired in 1989 as the chairperson of the modern languages department, she was voted most outstanding faculty emeritus.

Through all of this and always fashionable dressed, she was her husband’s champion in the art world, making connections and building business relationships. During the summers of the 1970s, she assisted him in designing crystal and dinnerware for the Mikasa Company in Germany and Japan. Each summer in the 1980s, she led a group of travelers on a three week art history tour through Europe.

Harrison and Marguerite McIntosh at Harrison’s 80th birthday party in 1992. Courier photo/Martin Weinberger

Active in the community of artists who arrived in Claremont after World War II, she recognized their talent and lasting impact on the regional art of Southern California and beyond. She had a grand dream of building a museum to display and preserve the work of area artists.

For 20 years she was the driving force behind the development of the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art and served as its founding president when it opened in 2007. When she was honored at the CLMA gala in 2018, artist Steve Comba remarked, “Marguerite exerts a gravitational pull that is legendary and like any legend is surrounded by a mix of fact and fantasy … Her unrelenting passion and determination infected all who participated … We have all been given a huge gift.”

She lived at Mt. San Antonio Gardens for 24 years. Harrison McIntosh died in 2016 at age 101. She lived her final years in Taylor Villa, the memory care residence, and continued to enjoy attending events and visiting exhibitions until her final weeks. “And she had a grand time celebrating her 100th birthday with multiple parties and visits throughout the summer,” her family shared.

Harrison and Marguerite McIntosh pictured on Marguerite’s 55th birthday, August 11, 1980, in Clamart, France. Photo/courtesy of Catherine McIntosh

Daughter Catherine returned to Claremont in 2009 after a 30-year career in photojournalism in Houston, Texas. She lives in the family home in Padua Hills with her husband Charles Tuggle and continues to serve on the CLMA Board, helping to sustain and grow her mother’s dream.

Marguerite McIntosh is also survived by grandson Jack Tuggle and his wife Molly Green; and great-grandsons Harrison and Mattox, who live in Los Angeles. Another grandson, Sam Tuggle, lives near Dallas, Texas.

In August, CLMA established the Marguerite McIntosh Endowment Fund for Collection Management upon her 100th birthday. Contributions to this fund will ensure the museum’s art collection remains safe, and continues to grow.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her honor to the Claremont Lewis Museum of Art at clmoa.org/donate.

A funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, December 16 at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church, 435 N. Berkeley Ave., Claremont 91711. A celebration of life with brief remarks and a luncheon reception will follow at 12:30 p.m. at Mt. San Antonio Gardens, 900 Harrison Ave., Pomona 91767.