William mcgowan biography mci founder

(b. 10 December 1927 in Ashley, Pennsylvania; d. 8 June 1992 in Washington, D.C), business entrepreneur and chairman and chief executive officer of MCI Communications Corporation.

A native of a small coal mining and railroad town southwest of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, McGowan grew up in an Irish Catholic family with three brothers and a sister.

His father, Andrew J.

McGowan, Sr., a railroad engineer, and his mother, Katherine Evans, a schoolteacher, both placed a strong emphasis on education.

William mcgowan biography mci founder wikipedia

McGowan graduated from Hanover Township High School in 1945, attended the University of Scranton for one year, and then joined the army in 1946. After a three-year stint as a medic in Germany, he was honorably discharged as a sergeant and entered Kings College in Wilkes-Barre on the GI Bill, graduating with a B.S.

degree in chemistry in 1952. After college McGowan entered the Harvard School of Business Administration, graduating as a Baker Scholar with an M.B.A