American Historian David McCullough Dies at Age 89 in Hingham, Massachusetts

David McCullough, a prize-winning writer and historian, died on Sunday, August 7 in Hingham, MA. He was 89.

McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, “Truman” (1992) and “John Adams” (2001), according to The New York Times.  He received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal” (1977) and “Mornings on Horseback” (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family. He was called a "master of the art of narrative history."

Born in 1933, McCullough grew up in the Point Breeze section of Pittsburgh, and attended Shady Side Academy before leaving for Yale University.  According to those who knew him, McCullough considered himself a Pittsburgher at heart.

“David McCullough’s intelligence, research and writing may have wandered across the country and the globe but his heart never wandered far from Pittsburgh,” said David Shribman, executive editor emeritus of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

In an interview with Pennsylvania Heritage Magazine, McCullough said, "My roots here in Pennsylvania are very deep. I’m bragging when I say that – all of my forbears come from Pennsylvania … from Peach Bottom, from Oxford, and from Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh family was part of a big Scotch-Irish migration that settled there before the Revolutionary War.

"I’m descended from farmers, and from at least one banker, one lawyer, a good many tradesmen, business people, a teacher. It’s very important to me, my Pennsylvania heritage."

He was proud of his Scots-Irish ancestry and was well received in the Irish-American community. 

In March 2011, McCullough received the John Fitzgerald Kennedy National Award  given annually by the Holyoke St. Patrick's Day Parade committee in western Massachusetts. The prestigious award was first bestowed on John F. Kennedy in 1958, and later named in his honor. 

“I’ve always loved writing. It’s talking on paper,” McCullough said in an interview with The Republican Newspaper in Western Massachusetts. “The Irish have a love of language, a love of talk, a love of poetry, and a love of story – what my mother would call ‘the gift of gab."  McCullough said his ancestors were from the North of Ireland and came to America in the 1800s.

In November, 2011, he was also honored by the American Ireland Fund at its annual Gala event in Boston.  

McCullough was deeply influenced by President John F. Kennedy, and in 2017 he spoke at the JFK Library about his affection and appreciation of JFK.  

He spoke in Dallas on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, and talked about how Kennedy had inspired his generation, saying "he talked of all that needed to be done, of so much that mattered – equal opportunity, unity of purpose, education, the life of the mind and spirit, art, poetry, service to one’s country, the courage to move forward into the future, the cause of peace on earth."

McCullough and his wife Rosalee lived for many years on Martha's Vineyard, and then moved to Hingham to be close to his children.  

“We love being close to the sea,” he says in an interview with South Shore Magazine. “We love New England’s architectural charm, the old ways of life here, and the attitudes about values that are essential to the New England story. I love the Old Ship Church. It’s the oldest church still in constant use in the country. It has never not been a church since 1681.”

McCullough's publisher was Simon & Schuster, who issued a statement reading in part:

“David McCullough was a national treasure. His books brought history to life for millions of readers. Through his biographies, he dramatically illustrated the most ennobling parts of the American character. Simon & Schuster has been honored to be David’s publisher for 54 years. He was greatly admired and beloved throughout our company. We will cherish his work for as long as we are publishing books.”

Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns said that McCullough "is among our greatest historians; he wrote with an almost magical command of language and story,” according to the Post Gazette.