Career
Born in Ottumwa, Iowa, he worked at the Ottumwa meatpacking plant and served as an officer in the local United Packing House Workers Local 1. He served in the Iowa House of Representatives from 1955 until 1959, after having been elected at the age of 25 and as the first Democrat to ever have been elected to the Iowa House from Wapello County. At the time, he was the youngest person ever to be elected to the Iowa House from any district.
He then served as vice president of the Iowa Federation of Labor.
In 1962, he was named to the American Federation of Labor-Congress-Chief Information Officer national staff and appointed Regional Director of the Committee on Political Education, a position he held for the next 25 years. He retired from the American Federation of Labor-Congress-Chief Information Officer in 1987.
McCoy resided in Council Bluffs, Iowa from 1974 to 2014. He died in Miami, Florida.