George McAfee "Mac" McCune (; June 16, 1908 – November 5, 1948) was an American scholar of Korea who developed the
McCune–Reischauer
McCune–Reischauer romanization () is one of the two most widely used Korean language romanization systems. A modified version of McCune–Reischauer was the official romanization system in South Korea until 2002, when it was replaced by the Re ...
romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
system of
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
with
Edwin O. Reischauer
Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and cul ...
. He taught Korean history and language at
Occidental College
Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...
and the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.
Early life and education
Born in
Pyongyang
Pyongyang (, , ) is the capital and largest city of North Korea, where it is known as the "Capital of the Revolution". Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River about upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. According to the 2008 populatio ...
, Korea, George McAfee McCune was the son of Helen McAfee and George Shannon McCune, American
Presbyterian
Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...
educational
missionaries
A missionary is a member of a religious group which is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Mi ...
who had sailed to the country in 1905. Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910.
The McCunes worked in Pyongyang and
Sinch'ŏn
Sinch'ŏn County is a county in South Hwanghae Province, North Korea.
Geography
Sinch'ŏn is bordered to the north by Anak, to the west by Samch'ŏn and T'aet'an, to the south by Pyŏksŏng and Sinwŏn, and to the east by Chaeryŏng. Most of t ...
. The young George had a younger brother,
Shannon, and two sisters, Catherine and Margaret.
They received their elementary educations in Korea.
McCune moved to the United States to attend
Huron College in
South Dakota
South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...
, where his father was president,
and after a year transferred to
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...
in New Jersey. He graduated from
Occidental College
Occidental College (informally Oxy) is a private liberal arts college in Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887 as a coeducational college by clergy and members of the Presbyterian Church, it became non-sectarian in 1910. It is one of the oldes ...
with a bachelor's degree in 1930. McCune returned to Korea for a few years, and taught at Union Christian College in Pyongyang, where his parents were working. He also owned and managed Taeon, a formerly Chinese-owned business, which enabled him to finance his graduate education.
[Heather McAfee McCune Thompson, ''A Daughter's Journey: Birth to Marriage: the Story of Evelyn Becker McCune, Arthur L. Becker, Her Father and George McAfee McCune, Her Husband''](_blank)
Lulu, pp. 85, 87, 108, 161, 164
McCune returned to the US and completed his
MA at Occidental College in 1935. He started doctoral work at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. He was granted a Mills Traveling Fellowship to continue his studies in Korea. He spent a year working on the official
Yi dynasty
The House of Yi, also called the Yi dynasty (also transcribed as the Lee dynasty), was the royal family of the Joseon dynasty and later the imperial family of the Korean Empire, descended from the Joseon founder Yi Seong-gye. All of his descendant ...
chronicles in connection with his dissertation. In 1941, he received his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to:
* Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification
Entertainment
* '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series
* ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic
* Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group
** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
from Berkeley.
In 1939, he and
Edwin O. Reischauer
Edwin Oldfather Reischauer (; October 15, 1910 – September 1, 1990) was an American diplomat, educator, and professor at Harvard University. Born in Tokyo to American educational missionaries, he became a leading scholar of the history and cul ...
, also an East Asian scholar, published their
McCune-Reischauer romanization
Romanization or romanisation, in linguistics, is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and ...
of the Korean language, which was widely used for decades.
Marriage and family
He married Evelyn Margaret Becker (1907-2012) in
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
,
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
, on April 22, 1933. She was a child of American Methodist missionary parents and also had been born in Pyongyang. They had met there while both were visiting their respective families. She was teaching at the
Seoul Foreign School
Seoul Foreign School is a Pre-K/Reception to Grade 12 international school located in Seoul, South Korea. The school was founded in 1912 by Christian missionaries to Korea and emphasizes Christian values. The Elementary, Middle and High Schools ...
in
Seoul
Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...
, Korea, after getting her
BA at University of California, Berkeley.
They became engaged and then married during a crisis because of McCune's health problems; his heart had been weakened by the
rheumatic fever
Rheumatic fever (RF) is an inflammatory disease that can involve the heart, joints, skin, and brain. The disease typically develops two to four weeks after a streptococcal throat infection. Signs and symptoms include fever, multiple painful jo ...
that he suffered from as a child. Their daughters, Helen Louise McCune and Heather McAfee McCune, were born respectively in 1934 and 1939.
Career
McCune began teaching Korean language and history at Occidental College, where he taught from 1939 to 1946, advancing from the rank of Instructor to Associate Professor.
Soon after the
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, ju ...
, the United States entered
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. In 1942, McCune was given a leave of absence to serve the war effort. He worked as a Social Science Analyst in the
Office of Strategic Services
The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II. The OSS was formed as an agency of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for all branc ...
(OSS), the precursor to the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
(CIA). After serving in the OSS for two years and briefly on the
Board of Economic Warfare
The Office of Administrator of Export Control (also referred to as the Export Control Administration) was established in the United States by Presidential Proclamation 2413, July 2, 1940, to administer export licensing provisions of the act of July ...
, McCune was appointed as officer of the Korea Desk in the
State Department
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
. During those years, he was "generally recognized as the government's leading expert on Korean affairs."
In 1946, he began teaching at UC, Berkeley. In 1948, he was promoted to associate professor of history at Berkeley, but he died that year because of heart problems.
At Berkeley, he had helped establish an intensive course in the Korean language in the Far Eastern and Russian Language School of the University Extension. In addition, he acquired for the East Asiatic Library several hundred volumes in the Korean language: "These constitute one of the first such collections in this country."
"He was a member of the Far Eastern Association, the Foreign Policy Association, the American Historical Association, the
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) is an American think tank
A think tank, or policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, mi ...
, the Institute of Pacific Relations, the American Association of University Professors and the World Affairs Institute. In 1947 he was appointed a member of the Advisory Editorial Board of the ''
Far Eastern Quarterly'' and in the same year was a delegate to the National Conference of the Institute of Pacific Relations, at Coronado, California."
His brother,
Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune (1913–1993), became a geographer and wrote several books about Korea for the general public.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCune, George M.
1908 births
1948 deaths
Linguists from the United States
Koreanists
20th-century linguists
Linguists of Korean
People from Pyongyang
Huron University alumni
Rutgers University alumni
Occidental College alumni
Occidental College faculty
University of California, Berkeley faculty
People of the Office of Strategic Services
American expatriates in Korea