There are many people who I have looked up to in my life. I have written about my family members who have made me who I am and taught me values I would aspire to all my life. I did not always live up to those values, but I aspired to them, nonetheless.
I also have great admiration for philosophical thinkers of the past, great leaders in battle and great leaders who occupied the Oval Office.
One of my favorite authors, David McCullough, died on Aug. 7, 2022, at the age of 89. He passed away within three months of his beloved wife, Rosalee. This happens a lot with close couples who have spent a lifetime together. When one passes, life becomes unbearable without their lifetime partner — so they soon pass away as well.
David McCullough had one of those voices that was comforting and soothing to listen to. Author Ron Chernow once called him “both the name and voice of American history.”
His tranquil, fatherly, baritone voice was the choice of Ken Burns to narrate his famous Civil War Documentary (1990) as well as Brooklyn Bridge (1981), FDR (1994), The Statue of Liberty (1996), Napoleon (1996) and Abraham and Mary: A House Divided (2001).
Some of his books I loved reading include “Morning on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt,” “1776,” “John Adams,” “Truman” and “The Wright Brothers,” among many others.
He wrote 14 non-fiction books all total, every one a joy to read and study. If you have never read David McCullough, you are in for a rare treat if you pick up one of his books. He’s guaranteed to inspire, entertain and educate you on America's amazing history.
He was not an academic, and yet his books were so beautifully written and so widely read that he is considered the expert in many academic circles on the subjects he focused on.
Simon & Schuster CEO Jonathan Karp said of this extraordinary historian that he was a “true American treasure … through his biographies, he dramatically illustrated the most ennobling parts of the American character.”
On his 80th birthday, his hometown of Pittsburgh named the 16th Street Bridge the David McCullough Bridge.
McCullough often spoke to students and before Congress. He said once, when speaking to a Senate Committee on the No Child Left Behind act, “history is being put on the back burner or taken off the stove altogether in many or most schools in favor of math and reading.”
He was nonpartisan most of his life but did not hesitate to speak out against politicians he viewed as anti-democratic, and especially those who had no respect for history and its significance to our national heritage.
“We have so little that’s authentic and real,” McCullough once said. “To replace that with plastic, contrived history, mechanical history is almost sacrilege.”
I would wholeheartedly agree.
•••
Richard Stride is the current CEO of Cascade Community Healthcare. He can be reached at drstride@icloud.com.
