University Times

Richard Hugh McCoy, emeritus professor of biochemistry and associate dean emeritus of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, died Oct. 10, 2000, at Sherwood Oaks retirement community in Cranberry Township. He was 91.

McCoy spent more than 38 years at the University as researcher, teacher and administrator before retiring in 1978.

McCoy was raised in Ohio and received his undergraduate education at Earlham College. He earned his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois in 1931 and 1935, respectively. While at Illinois he published a paper identifying and describing the isolation of threonine, at the time the last of the amino acids necessary for animal growth to be identified. The paper was reprinted in 1974 in Nutrition Reviews as a "nutrition classic."

Following his graduate studies, McCoy spent five years in nutritional biochemistry research at the University of Chicago and the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia. He came to Pitt in 1940 as senior research fellow. In 1943 he was appointed assistant research professor and in 1947 associate research professor in the Department of Chemistry. His research centered on dietary studies related to blood formation and the production of porphyrin.

In 1952 he moved to the School of Medicine's Department of Biochemistry. In 1957, he returned to the chemistry department as associate professor and was appointed assistant dean of the newly created Division of Natural Science. In 1959 he was promoted to full professor.

When the Faculty of Arts and Sciences was formed in 1967, McCoy become the first associate dean for graduate programs, a position he held for six years. He also served as chair of the University's Council for Graduate Studies.

During his deanship, McCoy initiated a graduate program for teachers from nine historically black colleges. He also helped to develop the cooperative doctoral program in religion with the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary and was the first chair of the committee administering the program.

In 1973 he resumed his departmental appointment as professor of biochemistry. Over the next five years he helped in the establishment of the Department of Biological Sciences by planning the physical facilities and overseeing the remodeling and construction in the Clapp-Langley-Crawford halls complex.

During that time he was involved with the Health Center Nutrition Program and taught seminars in nutrition. His teaching interests reflected a deep concern about worldwide nutritional problems.

In 1974 he and his wife, Margaret Stockdale McCoy, attended the United Nations World Food Conference as part of the Pennsylvania delegation.

McCoy was a member of the World Federalist Association and a board member of the Cranberry Public Library. A charter member of the Pittsburgh Religious Society of Friends, he was a member of the Pittsburgh Friends Meeting group.

He and his wife were among the founders of Sherwood Oaks retirement community in Cranberry.

In addition to his wife, McCoy is survived by a daughter, Carolyn McCoy, and a son-in-law, Bill Sanderson, both of Philadelphia; a sister, Margaret McCoy of Advance, North Carolina, and two grandchildren, Matthew and Margaret Sanderson of Philadelphia.

A memorial service will be held Oct. 28 at 2 p.m. in Sherwood Oaks auditorium.

Memorial contributions may be made to Pittsburgh Friends Meeting, 4836 Ellsworth Ave., Pittsburgh 15213, or to Sherwood Oaks Resident Association Memorial Fund, 100 Norman Drive, Cranberry Township 16066.