Earlier this year, a call from College President Larry Arnn brought Wilfred McClay to Hillsdale’s faculty from Oklahoma, and another offer flew his son, Mark McClay, in from Florida to teach classics.
Both father and son began teaching at Hillsdale College this fall. Mark McClay is an assistant professor of classics, and Wilfred McClay works as a professor of history. He’s also already written a Hillsdale College textbook.
In his first few days on campus, Wilfred McClay remembers experiencing the strong community and integrity of the college.
“This is really a community, going to the freshman convocation or going to the ice cream social at Broadlawn. These are things that don’t happen in a lot of other places,” he said. “There is a real commitment to being a community. That is wrapped around everything here and I can tell you, I haven’t experienced that before.”
McClay said he looks forward to advancing the mission of the college and being a part of the school’s environment.
“I’m thrilled to be here,” he said. “I’m very honored to be here.”
McClay complimented the quality of the education at the school and emphasized the need for students to appreciate and take advantage of the academics offered.
“I hope that my experience in other places will be a way of helping to impress upon people how important this institution is,” he said. “It is a holdout for the things that really matter about a college education.”
After graduating from St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland, McClay completed a doctoral program at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He began his academic career at Tulane University in New Orleans, and after 12 years there, he continued his pursuit of history at the University of Tennessee for 14 years. Upon finishing eight years of teaching at The University of Oklahoma, McClay accepted his current position from College President Larry Arnn.
Combining his work of restoring higher education with his expertise in history, McClay published a book in 2019 entitled, “The Land of Hope.” American Heritage courses at Hillsdale College currently use it as a resource for students. In this work, McClay directs the reader’s attention to the magnificent and noble parts of American history that he says generic history textbooks leave out.
“There aren’t a lot of good history textbooks out there, but when we knew McClay would be doing the book for the course, we knew it would be good,” Professor and Chair of History Mark Kalthoff said.
Additionally, McClay offered to teach an abridged version of his book through one of Hillsdale’s online courses, “The Great American Story.”
McClay said he looks forward to furthering his mission of strengthening education through his classes, the online Hillsdale courses, and teaching at the Barney Charter School Initiative.
Assistant Professor of Classics Mark McClay also said he is excited to embark upon this new adventure. His academic journey started during his undergraduate studies at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland.
“Teaching wasn’t the first thing I was interested in,” he said. “It really began as just wanting to study Greek.”
His passion for Greek overflowed into Latin and deepened over time until it pushed him to pursue a doctorate in classics at the University of California, Berkeley.
At the time, McClay was more focused on research and continuing his studies in Greek.
“Teaching was something you had to recognize as part of the job, but the more I’ve done it, the more I have come to enjoy it,” he said. “You have to find a way of isolating what’s really important, and that’s what you’re doing in the classroom.”
Transitioning from teaching at University of Miami, McClay said he has found Hillsdale College to be the perfect school for continuing his academic goals.
“I thought it would be a great fit,” he said. “The opportunity at Hillsdale was always the sort of place I wanted to teach in, with it being a liberal arts environment.”
In his first few classes of the semester, McClay said he enjoyed the challenge students brought to the table.
“You guys keep us on our feet,” he said. “I had some idea what to expect, but you never know quite what to expect.”
Like his father, Mark McClay said he noticed the high caliber of students at Hillsdale.
“I’ve been really impressed by how serious and well prepared the students are,” he said. “The classics program here is very serious. For a group this size, it has a highly devoted group of faculty and students.”
