David McCullough Net Worth

David Gaub McCullough, known to millions as an award-winning, best-selling author, an appealing television host and narrator with a rare gift for recreating the great events and characters of America’s past, died on Sunday August 7, 2022 at his home in Hingham, Mass. He was 89.

With decades under his belt as an author, television host and narrator, McCullough amassed substantial wealth and at the time of death, he had an estimated net worth of $9 million.

McCullough won Pulitzer Prizes for two presidential biographies, “Truman” (1992) and “John Adams” (2001). He received National Book Awards for “The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal” (1977) and “Mornings on Horseback” (1981), about the young Theodore Roosevelt and his family.

McCullough attended Yale University and while there, he became a member of Skull and Bones.

He served apprenticeships at Time, Life, the United States Information Agency, and American Heritage, where he enjoyed research.

“Once I discovered the endless fascination of doing the research and of doing the writing, I knew I had found what I wanted to do in my life.”

While attending Yale, McCullough studied Arts and earned his bachelor’s degree in English, with the intention of becoming a fiction writer or playwright. He graduated with honors in English literature in 1955.

After graduation, McCullough moved to New York City, where Sports Illustrated hired him as a trainee. He later worked as an editor and writer for the United States Information Agency in Washington, D.C.

After working for twelve years in editing and writing, including a position at American Heritage, McCullough “felt that [he] had reached the point where [he] could attempt something on [his] own.”

McCullough “had no anticipation that [he] was going to write history, but [he] stumbled upon a story that [he] thought was powerful, exciting, and very worth telling.”

While working at American Heritage, McCullough wrote in his spare time for three years.

The Johnstown Flood, a chronicle of one of the worst flood disasters in United States history, was published in 1968 to high praise by critics.

John Leonard, of The New York Times, said of McCullough, “We have no better social historian.” Despite rough financial times, he decided to become a full-time writer, encouraged by his wife Rosalee.