威廉·H·麥加菲，美國著名教育家。1800年出生於賓夕法尼亞州，1826年畢業於華盛頓大學傑斐遜學院。在數十年教育生涯中，他曾擔任過邁阿密大學語言學教授，俄亥俄大學校長。自1845年開始任弗吉尼亞大學道德哲學教授。他還幫助組建了俄亥俄州公立學校體系。
早在19世紀初期，麥加菲就意識到，應該給那些孤獨的墾荒者和歐洲移民的後代提供普遍的教育，於是他利用自己作為演講家與教育工作者的天賦，開始為孩子們編寫系列教材。這套教材***7冊，從學齡前至第6年級。他前後花費了20多年的時間才完成全套教材的編寫。這套教材面世後就被美國很多學校選為課本。在75年間銷量高達1.22億，直到今天仍以各種版本流行於西方，被美國《出版周刊》評為“人類出版史上第三大暢銷書”，對美國青年的心靈塑造與道德培養產生了史無前例的影響。
William Holmes McGuffey (September 23, 1800 – May 4, 1873) was an American professor and college president who is best known for writing the McGuffey Readers, one of the nation's first and most widely used series of textbooks. It is estimated that at least 122 million copies of McGuffey Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary.
He was born the son of Alexander and Anna (Holmes) McGuffey near Claysville in Washington County, Pennsylvania, which is 45 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. In 1802 the McGuffey family moved further out into the frontier at Tuscarawas County, Ohio. He attended country school, and after receiving special instruction at Youngstown, he attended Greersburg Academy in Darlington, Pennsylvania. Afterwards, he attended and graduated from Pennsylvania's Washington College, where he became an instructor.
He was close friends with Washington College's President Andrew Wylie and lived in Wylie's house for a time; they often would walk the 3 miles to Washington College together.
McGuffey's house in OxfordMcGuffey left Washington College in 1826 to become a professor at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. A year later in 1827, he was married to Harriet Spinning of Dayton, Ohio, with whom he had five children. In 1829, he was ordained at Bethel Chapel as a minister in the Presbyterian Church. It was in Oxford that he created the most important contribution of his life: The McGuffey Readers. His books sold over 122 million copies. He was very fond of teaching and children as he geared the books toward a younger audience.
In 1836, he left Miami to become president of Cincinnati College, where he also served as a distinguished teacher and lecturer. He left Cincinnati in 1839 to become the 4th president of Ohio University, which he left in 1843 to become president of Woodward College (really a secondary school) in Cincinnati.
In 1845, McGuffey moved to Charlottesville, Virginia where he became Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia. A year after his first wife Harriet died in 1850, he married Miss Laura Howard, daughter of Dean Howard of the University of Virginia, in 1851. McGuffey is buried in the university burial ground, in Charlottesville, Virginia. The School of Education at Miami University is housed in McGuffey Hall which is named for him and his home in Oxford is a National Historic Landmark offering tours on weekdays.