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Credit: John Emerson
Richard P. McCormick
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Richard P. McCormick talks about ...
His early career [Windows Media] [Real Media] (:23)
Advice he gave his son [Windows Media] [Real Media] (:24)
The "joy of discovery" [Windows Media] [Real Media] (:41)
Dr. Richard P. McCormick, one of the most accomplished and beloved scholars, educators, administrators and social activists in the 240-year history of Rutgers University, has died after an extended illness. He was 89.
Professor Emeritus McCormick, who first came to Rutgers as an undergraduate in 1934, served the university community and the state of New Jersey with distinction for more than 60 years as a professor of history, university historian, dean of Rutgers College and president of the New Jersey Historical Society. Dr. McCormick was an internationally recognized expert in New Jersey history and American political history and was instrumental in the establishment of several influential historical organizations, including the New Jersey Historical Commission, the New Jersey State Historical Records Advisory Board and the New Jersey Tercentenary Commission.
Historian Michael J. Birkner, author of “McCormick of Rutgers: Scholar, Teacher, Public Historian,” said in 2001: “You can’t read New Jersey history . . . without reading McCormick.” He also said Dr. McCormick was one of the “few people who I’ve met who speaks in perfect paragraphs. He’s a remarkably articulate man.”
“Richard P. McCormick was one of the luminaries of the Rutgers history department,” said longtime colleague Paul Clemens, associate chair of the history department. “I met him when I was first hired at Rutgers in 1974. He befriended me from the time I arrived. I drove out to see him only last week. We had an hourlong conversation . . . I promised to come back. I didn’t think it would be so soon.”
Dr. McCormick passed away Jan. 16, surrounded by members of his family, including his son, Rutgers University President Richard L. McCormick. In addition to his son, Dr. McCormick is survived by his wife of 60 years, Katheryne Levis McCormick; their daughter, Dorothy Boulia; three grandchildren, Christopher Kelly, Betsy McCormick and Michael McCormick; and his sister, Winifred Altwater.
Born Dec. 24, 1916, in Queens, N.Y., Richard Patrick McCormick graduated from Tenafly, N.J., High School in 1933. Dr. McCormick earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Rutgers College in 1938, where he was elected to membership in Phi Beta Kappa. Dr. McCormick went on to earn his master’s degree in history from Rutgers’ Graduate School-New Brunswick in 1940.
After studying for his doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. McCormick returned to Rutgers in 1945 and began teaching full time in the history department. He received his doctorate from Penn in 1948, the same year he was appointed Rutgers University historian. Also that year, Dr. McCormick inaugurated a full-year course at Rutgers on New Jersey history.
During 1961-62, Dr. McCormick was a fellow of Jesus College, the University of Cambridge. He also served as research adviser to Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and as a member of the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission.
A prolific writer of history, Dr. McCormick published nine books and more than 40 articles. His books included “New Jersey from Colony to State, 1609-1789”; “The Second American Party System: Party Formation in the Jacksonian Era”; and “The Presidential Game: The Origins of American Presidential Politics.” He was widely regarded as among the most influential historians of 18th- and 19th-century American politics.
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