威廉·H·麦加菲，美国著名教育家。1800年出生于宾夕法尼亚州，1826年毕业于华盛顿大学杰斐逊学院。在数十年教育生涯中，他曾担任过迈阿密大学语言学教授，俄亥俄大学校长。自1845年开始任弗吉尼亚大学道德哲学教授。他还帮助组建了俄亥俄州公立学校体系。
早在19世纪初期，麦加菲就意识到，应该给那些孤独的垦荒者和欧洲移民的后代提供普遍的教育，于是他利用自己作为演讲家与教育工作者的天赋，开始为孩子们编写系列教材。这套教材共7册，从学龄前至第6年级。他前后花费了20多年的时间才完成全套教材的编写。这套教材面世后就被美国很多学校选为课本。在75年间销量高达1.22亿，直到今天仍以各种版本流行于西方，被美国《出版周刊》评为“人类出版史上第三大畅销书”，对美国青年的心灵塑造与道德培养产生了史无前例的影响。
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.