Museum professional helped make history fun and accessible in Central Indiana and elsewhere.
In December, 1987 Polly, Lee Dorste, Betty Tilson, Rosie Felton, and Michelle Goodrich, were the first women admitted to the Rotary Club of Indianapolis in the year that Rotary International commenced admitting women. Read more in the book: “The Rotary Club of Indianapolis. A Club, a Community and a Century.”
Pauline “Polly” Jontz Lennon, who transformed Conner Prairie into a living history museum and influenced museums nationwide, passed away on Tuesday. She was 86.
Lennon joined Conner Prairie as executive director in 1982, back when it was more of a grade-school field trip location than a cultural destination. She didn’t have much to work with: The historical park in Fishers could only be reached by driving through stretches of cornfields, and its offices were located among seven 1930-era barns where traces of straw remained.
But she loved history and was a good communicator: Lennon majored in journalism and political science at Indiana University. After 19 years of working as a public relations and development director of The Children’s Museum, she was ready to make her own mark in a place that desperately needed her attention.
“I sensed her energy,” said Douglass McDonald, the now-retired CEO of the Cincinnati Museum Center and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. He said he was strongly impressed by Lennon while working closely with her during most of her 14-year career at Conner Prairie.
Conner Prairie thrived under Lennon’s leadership. She tore down the barns and built a new visitor’s center. She started the Symphony on the Prairie summer concert series with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra. Museum attendance, membership and the number of artifacts increased significantly. She held high expectations for her employees and even higher expectations for herself.
“She was a tough boss,” recalled Brenda Myers, executive director of Hamilton County Tourism Inc., who was once director of public affairs at Conner Prairie. “You can quote me on that. She really made us think. She made me use parts of my brain that I had never used before.”
But Lennon’s accomplishments did not come without obstacles. As a woman, McDonald said she sometimes had to fight for recognition by other community leaders.
“There were times when (leaders of the community) would get together and she wouldn’t be included,” he said. “I never heard her complain about it. It wouldn’t have made a difference. With Polly, you don’t waste effort on things that don’t make a difference. Conner Prairie had to be impactful, and that was what was important.”
When Lennon retired from Conner Prairie in 1996, she became the director of the Seminar for Historical Administration at Colonial Williamsburg, mentoring hundreds of individuals in museum management across the country. But she returned to Indiana by 2001, serving in interim leadership positions for the Indiana Historical Society, the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy (now the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy) and Seminary Advancement for the Christian Theological Seminary. Among other honors, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award in 1985 from Indiana University, her alma mater.
Lennon had a strong impact on her community and her family. Her granddaughter, Katherine Turk, was inspired by her grandmother’s example to become a history professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, focusing on 20th century women in the workforce.
“Who gets to do that?” said Lennon’s daughter Mary Lee Turk, an estate planning attorney in Chicago, of her mother’s influence. “To be in that position to change a community or a state. Who gets to do that?”
Lennon is survived by her daughter, Mary Lee Jontz Turk, and her three granddaughters, Katherine Turk, Elizabeth Turk and Emily Turk. Her son, former U.S. congressman Jim Jontz, died in 2007.
Email Anne Li at ali2@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at @annemiaoli.
Funeral information
Pauline Jontz Lennon’s funeral at Crown Hill Funeral Home and Cemetery will be private. Her life will be celebrated at the Museum Center at Conner Prairie Interactive History Park at 2 p.m. on Nov. 7. Her family said donations in her memory can be made to Conner Prairie Interactive History Park, 13400 Allisonville Road, Fishers, IN 46038.
