A monument for the pastor behind ‘A River Runs Through It’
The good people of the state of Montana have honored a historical Montanan.
“On Sunday, a monument honoring the central character in the story, minister and fly fisherman John Maclean, was dedicated at the First Presbyterian Church on Fifth St. in Missoula, Montana. It was in this Western city that Maclean presented his first sermon as pastor of the congregation one hundred years ago this year, in February 1909. He planned and oversaw the building of the current house of worship, which was completed in 1915.
Rev. Maclean, his wife Clara, and son Paul—around whose 1938 murder the book’s plot is constructed—are all buried in the church cemetery.”
“He told us about Christ’s disciples being fishermen, and we were left to assume…that all great fishermen on the Sea of Galilee were fly fisherman and that John, the favorite, was a dry-fly fisherman.”
Rev. John Maclean
