Mackenzie, Malcolm L., 1926-2000

Publicist and avid sailor Malcolm L. Mackenzie, born on January 19, 1926, in El Paso, Texas, was a founding member of the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, based in Wilmington, Delaware.

Mackenzie, a graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, owned and operated the publicity firm of Malcolm L. Mackenzie & Associates in Wilmington during the 1960s through the 1980s. In his private life, Mackenzie, who graduated from the Maine Maritime Academy and served in the U.S. Naval Reserve, enjoyed sailing and researching maritime history. Mackenzie devoted much of his life to redevelopment of an area in Wilmington known as the Seventh Street Peninsula, which encompasses heritage sites such as Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church and the Carl Milles 1938 sculpture of the Kalmar Nyckel, which commemorated the 300th anniversary of the establishment of New Sweden. This sculpture is located at the "the Rocks," a natural wharf on the Christina River, where on March 29th, 1638, approximately 30 men from Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands, and Germany arrived on two ships, the Kalmar Nyckel and the Fogel Grip . Mackenzie was active in the Swedish Colonial Society and was a founding member of both the New Sweden Centre and the Kalmar Nyckel Foundation, which established the Kalmar Nyckel Shipyard and, in 1997, built a replica of the 17th-century sailing ship.

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