William John McGee was born on April 17, 1853, in Farley, Iowa.

He was an American inventor, geologist, anthropologist, ethnologist, and author. Largely self-taught, he devoted his early years to reading law and to surveying. He invented and patented several improvements on agricultural implements. In 1881, he was appointed geologist for the U.S. Geological Survey and was primarily in charge of surveying the Atlantic Coastal Plain (1881-1893). In 1901, he received an L.L.D degree from Cornell College. From 1893 to 1903, he was an ethnologist in charge of the Bureau of American Ethnology at the Smithsonian Institution. Then he became the head of the Department of Anthropology of the St. Louis Exposition and from 1905 to 1907, he was the first Director of the Saint Louis Public Museum. In 1907, he was elected Vice-Chairman and Secretary of the federally created Inland Waterways Commission and was also appointed as an expert on soil waters in the Bureau of Soils, U.S. Department of Agriculture; the positions he held until his death. He also served as president of the National Geographic Society (1904–1905) and was a founding member of the Geological Society of America. In 1890, he became the first editor of The Geological Society of America Bulletin. He contributed numerous articles on his research to various journals. Mount McGee in California is named in his honour.

In 1888, he married Dr. Anita Rosalie Newcomb (1864–1940). He died on September 4, 1912, in Washington, D.C.