Marjorie Howard Futcher, 1882-1969, was the third child of Dr. Robert Palmer Howard, Dean of McGill's Medical Faculty from 1883-1889, and his second wife Emily Severs Howard. Dr. Howard was one of William Osler's most admired professors and when the three children of his second marriage were orphaned in 1892, William and Grace Osler took a special interest in the children. In 1909, Marjorie married Thomas B. Futcher (d. 1938) who had been Osler's chief medical resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital, and practiced medicine in Baltimore.

G. & C. Merriam Co. was an American publishing company. In 1831, brothers George and Charles Merriam founded a printing and bookselling operation in Springfield, Massachusetts, which they named G. & C. Merriam Co. In 1843, the company bought the rights to "An American Dictionary of the English Language" from Noah Webster's estate. It was renamed Merriam-Webster. In 1982, the company got incorporated and adopted the name Merriam-Webster, Inc.