McBay also co-founded the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers (NOBCChE).

[2] In 1954, McBay married Shirley Ann Mathis, a mathematician and strong advocate for increasing representations of minority students and researchers in academia.

[2] In 1940 McBay joined a newly formed research team at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama assigned the task of finding a suitable substitute for jute fiber.

He began to learn very specialized techniques in creating and handling highly explosive compounds that offered great value as chemical building blocks.

His dissertation focused on developing new methods of producing compounds from acetyl peroxide[1] and in 1945 he received his doctoral degree from the University of Chicago.

[5] He mentored dozens of students from historically black colleges and universities who ultimately earned doctoral degrees.