Education
Born and raised in Oakley, Idaho, McClelland received his Bachelor from San Jose State College, and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in history from the University of California.
Born and raised in Oakley, Idaho, McClelland received his Bachelor from San Jose State College, and his Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy in history from the University of California.
In 1940s McClelland joined the faculty of the San Francisco State College, where he became professor of history and international relations at the department of International Relations, and chairman of the division of social science. He was also visiting professor at the University of Michigan, department of Political Science, and joined the faculty as Professor, department of International Relations at the University of Southern California. One of his students at San Francisco State College was James North. Rosenau.
He was president of Society for General Systems Research from 1959 to 1961.
In the 1970s McClelland received research grants from the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a research arm of the Pentagon. In 1978-1979 he was a Scholar in Residence at the Annenberg School of Communications at the University of Southern California.