John T. McNay Jr. June 26, 1957 – October 27, 2023

Anaconda native Dr. John T. McNay Jr. was a historian and professor, fierce union activist, and beloved brother, friend, and teacher. He devoted his life to asking hard questions, searching for information, and fighting for justice. He died in his adopted city of Cincinnati, Ohio on October 27, 2023 after a brief illness. He was 66 years old. 

Dr. McNay was born on June 26, 1957 to John T. McNay Sr. and Mary “Sass” (McEachran) McNay. He graduated from Anaconda High School in 1975 and earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from University of Montana in 1980. Dr. McNay spent the next decade as a news reporter or editor at newspapers in Montana and Idaho, including The Anaconda Leader, Idaho Falls Post-Register, The Livingston Enterprise, and Montana Standard. 

He left journalism and returned to University of Montana where he earned a master’s degree in history in 1991. In 1997, he earned a PhD in history from Temple University where he specialized in the History of U.S. Foreign Relations. He served as a visiting professor of history at Cheyney University of Pennsylvania and Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania in the late 1990s before securing a tenure-track position at University of Cincinnati’s Blue Ash College in 2000. He was ultimately promoted to the highest rank of professor, and he served as department chair for three years. He was employed at UC’s Blue Ash College at the time of his death.

Dr. McNay was an exceptional teacher who referred to his students fondly and optimistically as his “young scholars.” He brought history to life through stories about the rise and fall of empires, political espionage, back-door diplomacy, and ordinary people thrust into extraordinary roles. In college classrooms and study abroad programs, he taught courses on world history, the world wars, the Cold War, and the Vietnam War. Dr. McNay was known for his dedication to his students and for his extraordinary ability to see in them the young scholars they might not yet see in themselves. He regularly nominated students for awards, celebrated their successes at commencement, and maintained friendships with some long after they graduated. 

As a scholar, Dr. McNay was an expert in diplomatic history with a focus on the Cold War. His work as a reporter showed him that even in stories about organizations or governments, individuals matter, that who we are and what we believe inform our decision making. This understanding drove him to archives and libraries around the world, trying to determine why historical figures did what they did. 

Dr. McNay published a wide range of scholarship including the books, Acheson and Empire: The British Accent in American Foreign Policy (2001), The Memoirs of Henry F. Grady: From the Great War to the Cold War (2009), and Collective Bargaining and the Battle of Ohio: The Defeat of Senate Bill 5 and the Struggle to Defend the Middle Class (2013). At the time of his death, he had more than one book project in development, including a nearly completed manuscript on presidential decisions for peace. In 2016, the Norwegian Nobel Institute awarded Dr. McNay a Senior Research Fellowship to support his work on this book project. In 2021, he won his college’s Exemplary Scholarship Award for his scholarly work.

Dr. McNay was an unyielding advocate for faculty rights, shared governance, academic freedom, and academic unionism. He was an activist with his local union, the UC chapter of The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) before he served a term as their president. During that time, he was an outspoken opponent of the infamous Ohio union-busting legislation, Senate Bill 5. Dr. McNay’s tireless participation in that political battle contributed to the defeat of SB5 and to his book, Collective Bargaining and the Battle of Ohio. He brought his union activism home to Montana in 2014, when he spoke to the AFL-CIO in Fairmont Hot Springs about the political battle behind the defeat of SB5. 

He served as President of the Ohio Conference AAUP (OCAAUP) from 2012 to 2020. As OCAAUP President, he was an unflappable advocate for faculty and union rights. Dr. McNay lobbied and testified to the Ohio General Assembly on numerous occasions and published many op-eds over the years about serious issues facing higher education. 

More recently, he served as chair of the National AAUP Government Relations Committee. In 2015, he won the national AAUP’s Al Sumberg Award for effective lobbying on issues of higher education. Dr. McNay was also active in service across the university, most notably serving as a faculty senator for several years. He was awarded his college’s Distinguished Service Award in 2014 and the university’s Faculty Senate Exemplary Service Award in 2015. 

Dr. McNay was a Montanan at heart, no matter where he lived. On social media, he often reposted stories about Montana politics or snowfall totals, the latter leading Ohio friends to believe that the Big Sky State was in a perpetual deep freeze. More than his home state, he loved his family, especially his sisters Lynn Fontana and Pam Buralli whom he visited frequently and who were at his side when he died. His family connection was so strong that when he needed a kidney transplant in 2018, his sister Lynn was his donor, and his sister Pam and his brother-in-law Mike Fontana were there to help as he recovered. Until his final illness, the transplant made his last years happy ones. He was able to do work he loved, travel, meet frequently with his large circle of friends for beers and stories, tour the tri-state in his sportscar (the one with the Big Sky license plate), and read or watch football with his cat Riley by his side. 

Dr. McNay was generous in every aspect of his life, easy to laugh, quick to tell stories, fast to stand up for what was right, and absolutely committed to making the world better for those who came after him. He could be an absent-minded professor, an indifferent housekeeper, and a pain in the neck to university administrators and state legislators, but Dr. McNay knew what was important and right, and those things guided him throughout his life. Those were the things that mattered to him.

Dr. McNay was preceded in death by his parents; his brother-in-law Anthony Buralli; and his beloved cat Riley. 

He is survived by his sister, Pamela Buralli and partner, John Drastal of Anaconda, MT; nephew, AJ Buralli of Anaconda; niece, Lisa (Travis) Wells and grandniece, Jayk Wells

of Phoenix, AZ; sister, Lynn (Mike) Fontana of Rancho Mirage, CA; nephew, Joseph Fontana, Active Duty, U.S. Navy; niece, Kathryn Fontana and partner, Greg Janysek of Helena, MT; numerous cousins; and countless students who are part of his legacy and who carry forward all he taught them about history and life.

A celebration of Dr. McNay’s life will be held this summer in Anaconda. Details will be forthcoming. Memorial donations may be made to The John McNay Memorial Young Scholars Fund, University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College, Attn: Andrew Baker, 9555 Plainfield Road, Blue Ash, OH 45236.