Paul Eugene McCarthy

Manhattan – Funeral services for Paul Eugene McCarthy, 85, Manhattan, will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Chapel in Manhattan with the Rev. Michael Ide officiating. Burial with full military honors will follow in Sunrise Cemetery.Mr. McCarthy died Friday, Feb. 9, 2007, at Stormont-Vail Regional Health Center in Topeka.He was born April 18, 1921, in Des Moines, Iowa, the son of Frank Eugene and Vera Glee Newell McCarthy. He graduated from North High School in Des Moines and received Bachelor of Arts and Master of Fine Arts degrees from the University of Iowa. He received a Ph.D. in American literature from the University of Texas. Mr. McCarthy served in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II as a second lieutenant. He was stationed in the Philippines and South Pacific.He was an American literature professor and Melville scholar. He taught at Iowa State University, University of Texas, University of Idaho, University of North Dakota and University of Alabama. He joined the faculty at Kansas State University in 1967 and retired in 1991.Mr. McCarthy held professional memberships in the Publication of Modern Language Association, American Association of University Professors and The Melville Society. He authored two books, “John Steinbeck” and “The Twisted Mind: Madness in Herman Melville’s Fiction” and contributed many articles to academic journals, including the Emerson Society Quarterly. He was working on an autobiography, “Let Bygones Be Bygones.”He was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Retired Officers Association, NAACP, ACLU and Common Cause.Mr. McCarthy enjoyed hunting, fishing, reading, book collecting, photography, exercise, politics, archeology, anthropology, study of the mind, animals and sports, especially the K-State Wildcats and Iowa Hawkeyes.He married Phyllis E. Niemann on Aug. 29, 1948, at St. Matthews Lutheran Church in Nortonville. She survives, of the home. Other survivors include two sons, James M. and wife Darla, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Thomas E. and wife Laurel, Dundee, Iowa; three daughters, Patricia Ann McCarthy Metzler and husband Steven, Lawrence, Susan Elaine McCarthy and husband Bill James, Boston and formerly of Lawrence, and Marybeth McCarthy Cwycyshyn and husband David, Lake Orion, Mich.; two brothers, Michael McCarthy, Las Vegas, and Jack Daily, Des Moines; two sisters, Molly Claire McCarthy, Kapolei, Hawaii, and Virginia Hildreth, Cumming, Iowa; two sisters-in-law, Marjorie Carver and husband Jerry, Topeka, and Ruth Niemann, Rushville, Mo.; and 14 grandchildren, Christopher, Scott, Paul and Peter Metzler, Rachel McCarthy James, Isaac and Reuben James, Natalie, John, Adele and Nathaniel McCarthy, and Anne, Nicholas and Bryan Cwycyshyn.Mr. McCarthy was preceded in death by his parents, step-parents and four brothers and sisters: Terrance and Patrick McCarthy, Max Fogel and Norma Damiani.The family suggests memorials to the Hale Library at Kansas State University, the Des Moines Public Library or a local library of the donor’s choice, sent in care of the funeral home, 1616 Poyntz Ave., Manhattan 66502.Online condolences may be sent at www.ymlfuneralhome.com.