David McCullough, a bestselling novelist with numerous honors and a charming television personality, passed away Sunday at his home in Hingham, Massachusetts. He was 89.
David McCullough was the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, and the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award two times each.
Truman and John Adams, two Pulitzer Prize-winning books by McCullough, have each been turned into a TV movie and a miniseries by HBO.
Meet David McCullough Wife Rosalee McCullough & Daughter Dorie Lawson
David McCullough married Rosalee Barnes McCullough, whom he met in Pittsburgh when he was 17. They were married until her passing in June 2022.
With the popularity of “The Johnstown Flood” and the encouragement of his wife, Rosalee McCullough, he decided to take a risk and leave his day job to devote himself entirely to writing history and biography. At the same time, the couple raised their five children.
Along with Dorie, he is survived by Melissa McDonald, three sons named David Jr., William, and Geoffrey, one brother named George, 19 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. At age 89, Ms. McCullough passed away in June.
They have five kids in total and nineteen grandchildren. He appreciates history, athletics, and art, mainly watercolor and portraiture.
Following his relocation from Boston’s Back Bay in 2016, McCullough established a residence in Hingham, Massachusetts, where three of his five children still call home. In Camden, Maine, he keeps a vacation property.
David McCullough Death Cause- How Did He Die?
Dorie Lawson, David McCullough’s daughter, confirmed his demise. However, the family has not disclosed the cause of death.
McCullough was born to Ruth (née Rankin) and Christian Hax McCullough in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Point Breeze area. He has Scots and Irish ancestry. In his hometown of Pittsburgh, he received his education at Shady Side Academy and Linden Avenue Grade School.
Mr. McCullough earned an honors degree in literature in 1955. He had considered attending medical school or writing plays or fiction, but he decided to go on as a trainee at the magazine Sports Illustrated, which had just launched the year before.
After that, writing and editing positions appeared, first at the United States Information Agency in Washington and subsequently for the history magazine American Heritage.
Over the following decades, he published 11 additional books, including, in addition to those already mentioned, “Brave Companions: Portraits in History,” a combination of his essays, “1776,” which focused on the American military under George Washington.
In addition, it served as a companion volume to “John Adams” and “In the Dark Streets Shineth: A 1941 Christmas Eve Story,” which was about the message of hope that Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill shared when they first met shortly after Pearl Harbor.
David McCullough Net Worth
According to Celebrity Net Worth, David McCullough had an estimated net worth of $8 million.
Mr. McCullough was frequently cited as an example of good moral character. He got more than 40 honorary doctorates and other awards from scholarly historical groups. The author was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2006.
Mr. McCullough narrated the critically acclaimed “The Civil War” Ken Burns series in 1990. He was the one whose voice kept interrupting the Hollywood movie “Seabiscuit” from 2003 to provide historical information.
He was chosen to present the prestigious Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities in Washington, D.C., in 2003 by the National Endowment for the Humanities.
From 1988 through 1999, Mr. McCullough served as the host and narrator of “American Experience,” a public television program. Smithsonian World, a television magazine, was also hosted by him.
His works’ depth of knowledge and dramatic structure sparked television adaptations; “Truman” became a Gary Sinise-starring HBO movie, while “John Adams” served as the inspiration for an HBO miniseries starring Paul Giamatti.
A self-possessed, blue-eyed, hale man of Scotch-Irish origin, Mr. McCullough was a natural on television. He also had a voice and delivery that kept him in demand for off-camera work.