[1][2] After a stint at the Dominion Coal and Steel Co. in Sydney, MacOdrum came to Ottawa in 1944 to sell war bonds.

There he was recruited by Carleton College's founder and president, Henry Marshall Tory, to be his executive assistant and eventual successor.

MacOdrum successfully lobbied the Ontario government to give the young but as-yet-unrecognized college a charter and degree-granting powers, which it got in 1952.

In his honour, the second building on the new campus was named the Maxwell MacOdrum Library.

[3][4] Upon his death, MacOdrum was succeeded by acting president James Alexander Gibson.