An East Tennessee historian and professor whose work brought to light the heroics of a pioneering World War I pilot has died.
Marc E. McClure died this week while awaiting heart surgery, according to a social media post by his wife, Jessica Mills McClure.
WBIR interviewed McClure often over the years about his work and the stories of fascinating East Tennesseans his research uncovered.
He was a history professor at Walters State Community College.
McClure's curiosity about the Morristown tombstone of a Newport native named Kiffin Rockwell led McClure to produce a documentary that ended up being shown in France and elsewhere.
Rockwell, who also had North Carolina ties, volunteered as an American to fly for and fight for the French during World War I. The United States didn't enter the war until 1917.
In May 1916, Rockwell killed a two-man German observational team in the air, becoming the first American to shoot down enemy combatants during the war. In September 1916, he was shot and killed himself in the air by a German reconnaissance plane.
McClure later saw Rockwell's tombstone in a Morristown graveyard and became curious when he saw the 1916 death date. Rockwell's remains actually rest in France.
For his research on Rockwell, McClure received the East Tennessee Historical Society's Research Excellence Award.
McClure also worked on a documentary about Dr. Dennis Branch, a Black physician who broke color barriers while practicing in primarily white Cocke County.