James McCoy (1883 – 1959) served as superintendent of the Home from 1928 – 1940, with the exception of a few months in 1938 when he was unexpectedly removed from his post by the President of the ITU and Board of Trustees of the Home. He appealed this decision and was reinstated, and remained in the position for another two years before he was once again removed by the Board, and this time, his appeal was not successful. The reasons behind his removal are convoluted, and seem to be accusations of McCoy expressing dissatisfaction with the Board of Trustees to numerous other members of the ITU. There also seemed to be personal contention between McCoy and Claude M. Baker, the ITU president who came into office in the Summer of 1938.

Mr. McCoy, in spite of the murkiness surrounding the later years of his superintendency, was superintendent during the largest period of growth of the Home, overseeing the construction of the three buildings besides the Castle building which are still standing – the boiler and laundry building, the North dormitory, and the South sanatorium/hospital. His tenure also included the reconstruction of the interior of the Castle building, including the addition of the auditorium. In the archives, we lovingly refer to Mr. McCoy as the Staple King, as all of his executive documents were stapled to an extreme (sometimes two pieces of paper were stapled together with three staples!).

McCoy, born and raised in Philadelphia, became a member of the Philadelphia Typographical Union in 1908 at the age of 25. He married Blanche A. Hogg in 1912, and she served as the Matron of the Home during Mr. McCoy’s tenure as superintendent. The McCoys’ lives after the Home are not well-documented, and all we know is that Blanche McCoy died in Washington State in 1954, and James McCoy died in a Philadelphia hospital in 1959.