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Short Bio

John D. McGinnis was born at a very early age in Latrobe, PA in 1954. When he was eight his family (2 parents, 1 brother, 8 sisters) moved across the state to Norristown, PA. Not long after that, he tracked them down and spent his formative years growing up in Norristown, graduating from Bishop Kenrick High School in 1972. He attended the University of Notre Dame du Lac and was graduated cum Somnus in 1976 majoring in the General Program of Liberal Studies. From 1976 to 1983 he taught 7th and 8th grade history and mathematics in South Bend, Indiana. He also coached a 7th and 8th grade basketball team at that time and is widely regarded as the greatest 7th and 8th grade basketball coach in history. From 1984 to 1988 he worked in the administration of his beloved Alma Mater. During this time he earned a Masters of Science in Business Administration from Indiana University, South Bend (Magna cum Somnus). In the fall of 1988, he began the doctoral program in finance at Penn State and was graduated, Summa cum Somnus, in 1993. In 1993-94 he taught at the University of Delaware. From 1994-1997 he taught at the Penn State Great Valley Graduate Center. He has been at the Penn State Altoona College since August of 1997.

Dr. McGinnis has an abiding interest in the School of Austrian Economics and on the economic and philosophic thought of Adam Smith. His other research interests include executive compensation, financial planning, and the economics of age and aging. He is the founder of the Dead Economists Society, a discussion group of business people in the Valley Forge area interested in improving their understanding of economics. Dr. McGinnis is also a CFA charterholder and is a member of the Institute for Management Accountants. He has published numerous papers in scholarly and popular journals. He has presented papers and conducted seminars across the U.S. and around the globe, including Zurich, Switzerland, Toronto, Canada, and Beijing, China.

His great loves are Baseball, Borzoi (especially his dogs Vaska, Drushka, Ceilidh and a German Shepherd named Jackson), Classic Coke, Notre Dame Football, and Philadelphia Flyers Hockey. His pet peeves are politicians, un-American football (soccer), and writing about himself in the third person.