Elijah J. McCoy
(May 2, 1844 – October 10, 1929)
Alma mater University of Edinburgh
Occupation Engineer, inventor, tribologist, railroad fireman and oiler
Elijah McCoy held 57 United States patents, mostly related to the railway. His inventions, which were not headline-making outside the field of steam engines, were so associated with quality and good function that people began using “the real McCoy” to refer to quality products.
McCoy’s legacy was honored when he was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and when a patent office in Detroit was named after him.
He married for the second time in 1873 to Mary Eleanora Delaney. The couple moved to Detroit when McCoy found work there. Mary McCoy (died 1923) helped found the Phillis Wheatley Home for Aged Colored Men in 1898.[19] Elijah McCoy died in the Eloise Infirmary in Nankin Township, now Westland, Michigan, on October 10, 1929, at the age of 85, as a result of injuries suffered in a car accident seven years earlier in which his wife Mary died. He is buried in Detroit Memorial Park East in Warren, Michigan.
In 1974, the state of Michigan put a historical marker (P25170) at the McCoys’ former home at 5720 Lincoln Avenue,[23] and at his gravesite.
In 1975, Detroit celebrated Elijah McCoy Day by placing a historic marker at the site of his home. The city also named a nearby street for him.
In 1994, Michigan installed a historical marker (S0642) at his first workshop in Ypsilanti, Michigan.
In 2001, McCoy was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in Alexandria, Virginia.
In 2012, The Elijah J. McCoy Midwest Regional U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (the first USPTO satellite office) was opened in Detroit, Michigan.
In 2022, a Google Doodle appeared in Canada and the U.S. marking his 178th birthday on May 2.
great book to read Towle, Wendy; Wil, Clay (Illustrator) (1993). The Real McCoy: The Life of an African American Inventor. A Blue Ribbon Book. Scholastic. ISBN 978-0590461344.
photo is Ypsilanti Historical Society/Wikimedia Com