George M. McCune

Who was George M. McCune?

George McAfee "Mac" McCune was co-developer, with Edwin O. Reischauer, of the McCune–Reischauer romanization of Korean. He was born in P'yŏngyang as the son of an American educational missionary, George Shannon McCune and received his elementary education in Korea. He then attended Huron College in South Dakota and transferred to Rutgers University after one year. He graduated from Occidental College with a Bachelor degree in 1930.

After obtaining his MA in 1935, he did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was granted a Mills Traveling Fellowship to continue his studies in Korea. He spent a year working on the official Yi Dynasty chronicles, in connection with his dissertation, and in 1941 received his Ph.D.

In 1948, McCune was promoted to associate professor of history at Berkeley, shortly before his death.

His brother, Shannon Boyd-Bailey McCune, was a geographer who authored several books on Korea for the general public.