IN MEMORIAM
Hugh C. MacDougall, 88;
Retired Diplomat, Historian
COOPERSTOWN – Hugh C. MacDougall, 88, retired diplomat, longtime village historian and expert on James Fenimore Cooper, passed away over the weekend at the Thanksgiving Home, where he had lived in recent months.
With the U.S. Foreign Service, he served in Lourenco Marques and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania, and in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar), as well as several assignments at the Department of State in Washington D.C.
In retirement, he founded the national James Fenimore Cooper Society.
His wife, Eleanor, passed away in 2015.
A full obituary will be forthcoming. Arrangements are with the Tillapaugh Funeral Home, Cooperstown.
Wonderful fellow. Irreplaceable historian for the Village
Long time neighbor and friend. Enjoyed so many ccal classes. Wonderful wit. Hugh and Eleanor will be missed.
Hugh was a kind and generous man who was the foremost scholar of James Fenimore Cooper, Susan Fenimore Cooper and their milieu. He was the best kind of scholar and teacher, one who delights and what they know and in sharing and enjoying it with others. He knew both the nooks and crannies of Cooper yet had an overall sense of whet it all meant. He also, as the obituary indicates, was a widely traveled and cosmopolitan man who had a very rich life experience. He and Eleanor were a great pair and were both wonderful to me when I gave my first talk on Cooper in 2005. My condolences to his family, to the Cooper scholarly community, and to the people of Cooperstown and Otsego county.