LAS VEGAS — The Erotic Heritage Museum issued a press release today disclosing the passing of Rev. Dr. Ted Mcilvenna, who was instrumental in the founding of the Las Vegas museum that focuses on sexual pleasure.
Mcilvenna, 86, was a United Methodist minister who coordinating educational experiences around human sexuality and was known as a titan in the field of sexology.
“His love of art and sexuality led him to co-found the Erotic Heritage Museum, which, as he explained to me once, was a beautiful marriage seeped in spirituality,” Erotic Heritage Museum Director Dr. Victoria Hartmann said. “I am deeply grateful for the opportunity I had to learn from him.”
McIlvenna was born March 15, 1932, in Epping, N.H. At an early age, he moved with his family to the Pacific Northwest where his father, an itinerant Methodist minister and missionary.
McIlvenna started college at Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., on an athletic scholarship. Upon completing a B.A. degree in sociology and philosophy in 1954 at Williamette College, he was recruited to attend theological school. He later went to Europe to study systematic theology and philosophy of religion at the University of Edinburgh and University of Florence.
Upon his return to the U.S., McIlvenna became the pastor of Wesley Methodist Church in Hayward, Calif., in 1958. Because of his interest and expertise in social design, McIlvenna joined the staff of the Glide Foundation in downtown San Francisco in 1963. At Glide, he staffed the Young Adult Project, where he developed programs to reach out and meet the needs of young urban adults.
In his community outreach around Glide Church, McIlvenna became acquainted with the San Francisco gay community, often witnessing the violence and persecution they often faced.
In his efforts to help church leaders understand homosexuality, who had commissioned him with the task of gay conversion, McIlvenna secured the sponsorship of two national Methodist agencies to convene a consultation of “30 clergy and homosexual persons” in 1964, sharing his belief that people’s sex drives were as individual as fingerprints and impervious to change.
The positive results of McIlvenna’s retreat led San Francisco participants — both heterosexual clergy and homosexual activists — to organize the “Council on Religion and the Homosexual,” where he became the first president and driving force in its initial period of development. McIlvenna was also a key organizer and convener of the “International Consultation on Church, Society and the Homosexual” in London.
Due to growing interest in designing educational experiences dealing with human sexuality, McIlvenna returned to San Francisco in 1968 to become co-director of the National Sex and Drug Forum.
In 1976, he helped organize and was the first president of the Institute for Advanced Study of Human Sexuality, where he continued to work as professor of forensic sexology.
McIlvenna served as a consultant to several foundations in developing programs and structures for alternative funding for voluntary organizations.
In addition to speaking at numerous conferences, McIlvenna lectured at many colleges and graduate schools. He also wrote numerous journal articles, authored 17 books and co-authored eight books.
McIlvenna produced more th an 100 videos, mostly about sex education. He has also received special awards for several social projects he designed.
In the late 1990s, McIlvenna moved into retired status but then found a new interest — preserving erotic artifacts, art and film in a permanent setting.
The Erotic Heritage Museum was originally created between McIlvenna and Déjà Vu founder Harry Mohney in 2006.
Opened to the public in 2008, the museum houses more than 24,000 square feet of permanent and featured exhibits, designed to preserve wonders of the erotic imagination as depicted through the artistic expression of acts of sex and love.
In October, the Erotic Heritage Museum will celebrate having delivered a decade of sex education and artifact curation to the public.
A memorial for McIlvenna has been scheduled to occur during its upcoming anniversary celebration on Oct. 13.
Erotic Heritage Museum is located at 3275 Sammy Davis Jr. Dr., Las Vegas, NV 89109. Call (702) 794-4000 for hours and other information.