A native of Wilmington, NC, Henry Bacon McKoy was born on September 21, 1893. He attended George Washington University and then served with the U.S. Army 105th Engineers in France in WWI. McKoy began his career as an engineer and marble inspector on the construction of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. He was a partner in the Morris-McKoy Company that built Furman University’s Sirrine Stadium in 1936. The Henry B. McKoy Construction Company and the McKoy-Helgerson Company constructed many buildings over the South. McKoy was interested in North and South Carolina history and wrote many books about local history and his family's genealogy. McKoy died in 1991.