McRae attended the
Detroit Public Schools and attended but did not graduate from
Detroit Medical College. In 1883, while serving as advertising manager of
The Cincinnati Post, McRae met thirty-year-old
E. W. Scripps, who had taken over as managing editor. The two began a business relationship that would last for many years. In 1887, Scripps made McRae the managing director of the
St. Louis Chronicle, a paper Scripps had purchased in 1880. In 1889, Scripps brought McRae on as a partner, and in 1894, together with Scripps and his half-brother George, McRae founded the Scripps-McRae League of Newspapers. In 1907, the Scripps-McRae League of newspapers combined three regional press associations into the
United Press Association. McRae was President of the Detroit Board of Commerce from 1911 to 1912. He became the third
national president of the Boy Scouts of America upon the death of
James J. Storrow in 1926. == Works ==