Professor of History
Centurion, 1908–1926
Born 16 October 1849 in New York (Manhattan), New York
Died 12 June 1926 in Babylon, New York
Proposed by Edward M. Shepard and Theodore F. Miller
Elected 6 June 1908 at age fifty-eight
Century Memorial
As a teacher of history, William George McGuckin brought into the section room a personality of singularly winning charm, with a certain old-school distinction. His brilliant pupil, Professor J. Selwyn Schapiro, whose very popular text-book on the history of modern Europe is dedicated to McGuckin, has published his testimony, as a pupil, to the vivid way in which McGuckin brought his students into contact with the personalities of history, so that Caesar and Cicero were living human beings, with the same ambitions and political manoeuvres as are shown by the men of today. Fortune dealt a stroke of double kindliness in bringing Professor McGuckin, after many years of laborious teaching and after successive bereavements that had left him practically alone in his home, into the snug harbor, the congenial companionship, of the Century. Here he found companionship that made the afternoon of his life peaceful and happy. In his presence, a fellow-Centurion felt himself in contact with a man of the widest reading, of the culture of travel, steeped in the traditions of the truly “little” and truly “old” New York.
Alexander Dana Noyes
1927 Century Association Yearbook
