David Gaub McCullough was born in Pittsburgh on July 7, 1933, one of four sons of Ruth (Rankin) and Christian McCullough. If he knew of his dark days when he was young, there seems to be no record of it. In his interviews, he said he loved the city school he attended and had healthy interests such as reading, sports, and drawing comics, all encouraged by his parents.
In 1951 he went to Yale University, where he became a member of Yale’s secret student group, Skull and Bones, and was inspired by the English faculty, which included Robert Penn Warren, John O’Hara, and John Hershey. A lunchtime conversation with the novelist and playwright Thornton Wilder, he later said, particularly influenced his approach to choosing subjects. I write non-fiction.
Mr. McCullough graduated with honors in literature in 1955. He considered writing fiction or plays, or going to medical school. At the event, he signed on as a trainee for Sports Illustrated, which had started the previous year. He then took a job as a writer and editor, first at the U.S. Intelligence Agency in Washington and then at the historical magazine American Heritage.
The Johnstown Flood, published in 1968, established him as the person who could cover the 1889 Pennsylvania Great Dam Crash that killed more than 2,000 people in Pennsylvania. Gives greater life. Alden Whitman of The Times said, “It’s a fine job. It’s scholastic yet vivid, balanced yet sharp.”
With the success of “The Johnstown Flood” and the support of his wife, Rosalie McCullough, he took a leap of faith, quitting his day job to write history and biographies full-time while the couple raised their five children. They survive him: in addition to Dolly, another daughter, Melissa McDonald. Three sons, David Jr., William and Jeffrey. brother, George. 19 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. McCullough said he died in June at the age of 89.
