David McCullough

David Gaub McCullough was an American popular historian. He was a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. In 2006, he was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United State's highest civilian award. Born and raised in Pittsburgh, McCullough earned a degree in English literature from Yale University. His first book was The Johnstown Flood (1968), and he wrote nine more on such topics as Harry S. Truman, John Adams, Theodore Roosevelt, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Panama Canal, and the Wright brothers. 

McCullough also narrated numerous documentaries, such as The Civil War by Ken Burns, as well as the 2003 film Seabiscuit, and he hosted American Experience for twelve years. McCullough's two Pulitzer Prize–winning books, Truman and John Adams, were adapted by HBO into a TV film and a miniseries, respectively. McCullough was born in the Point Breeze neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Ruth (née Rankin) and Christian Hax McCullough. He was of Scots-Irish, German, and English descent. He was educated at Linden Avenue Grade School and Shady Side Academy in his hometown of Pittsburgh.

One of four sons, McCullough had a "marvelous" childhood with a wide range of interests, including sports and drawing cartoons. McCullough's parents and his grandmother, who read to him often, introduced him to books at an early age. His parents often talked about history, a topic he said should be discussed more often. McCullough "loved school, every day"; he contemplated many career choices, ranging from architect, actor, painter, and writer to lawyer, and considered attending medical school for a time.

In 1951, McCullough began attending Yale University. He said that it was a "privilege" to study English at Yale because of faculty members such as John O'Hara, John Hersey, Robert Penn Warren, and Brendan Gill. McCullough occasionally ate lunch with the Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder. Wilder said McCullough taught him that a competent writer maintains "an air of freedom" in the storyline so that a reader will not anticipate the outcome, even if the book is non-fiction.

While at Yale, he became a member of Skull and Bones. He served apprenticeships at Time, Life, the United States Information Agency, and American Heritage, where he enjoyed research. He said: "Once I discovered the endless fascination of doing the research and of doing the writing, I knew I had found what I wanted to do in my life." While attending Yale, McCullough studied Arts and earned his bachelor's degree in English with the intention of becoming a fiction writer or playwright. He graduated with honors in English literature in 1955.

After graduation, McCullough moved to New York City, where Sports Illustrated hired him as a trainee. He later worked as an editor and writer for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C. After working for twelve years in editing and writing, including a position at American Heritage, McCullough "felt that had reached the point where could attempt something on own."

McCullough "had no anticipation that was going to write history, but [he] stumbled upon a story that [he] thought was powerful, exciting, and very worth telling." While working at American Heritage, McCullough wrote in his spare time for three years. The Johnstown Flood, a chronicle of one of the worst flood disasters in United States history, was published in 1968 to high praise by critics. John Leonard of The New York Times said of McCullough, "We have no better social historian." Despite rough financial times, he decided to become a full-time writer, encouraged by his wife, Rosalee.

In 1954, McCullough married Rosalee Barnes; the couple had first met as teenagers, and they remained together until her death on June 9, 2022. They had five children. In 2016, the couple moved from the Back Bay of Boston to Hingham, Massachusetts; three of his five children also lived there as of 2017. He had a summer home in Camden, Maine. McCullough's interests included sports, history, and visual art, including watercolor and portrait painting.

His son, David Jr., an English teacher at Wellesley High School in the Boston suburbs, achieved sudden fame in 2012 when he gave a commencement speech in which he repeatedly told graduating students that they were "not special"; his speech went viral on YouTube. Another son, Bill, is married to the daughter of former Florida governor Bob Graham.

A registered independent, McCullough typically avoided publicly commenting on contemporary political issues. When asked to do so, he would repeatedly say, "My specialty is dead politicians." During the 2016 presidential election season, he broke with his custom to criticize Donald Trump, whom he called "a monstrous clown with a monstrous ego."

McCullough taught a writing course at Wesleyan University and was a visiting scholar at Cornell University and Dartmouth College. After a period of failing health, McCullough died at his home in Hingham on August 7, 2022, at age 89.