Background
He was born in P"yŏngyang as the son of an American educational missionary, George Shannon McCune and received his elementary education in of Korea.
He was born in P"yŏngyang as the son of an American educational missionary, George Shannon McCune and received his elementary education in of Korea.
He then attended Huron College in South Dakota and transferred to Rutgers University after one year.
He graduated from Occidental College with a bachelor"s degree in 1930. After obtaining his Master of Arts in 1935, he did graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was granted a Mills Traveling Fellowship to continue his studies in of Korea. He spent a year working on the official Yi Dynasty chronicles, in connection with his dissertation, and in 1941 received his Doctor of Philosophy