He taught and was a member of the Board of Trustees at Transylvania from 1813 to 1819, and he was elected to serve as the first president of Centre College in Danville, Kentucky, in March 1820 but died nearly three months later before officially assuming the position.

McChord relocated to New York City to attend the Associate Reformed Theological Seminary,[2] where he studied under John M.

[2] He began preaching sermons in 1813, in the home of the minister Dr. T. S. Bell, though this practice eventually ceased because it was against the laws of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church.

[7] McChord was invited to give a sermon to the Kentucky General Assembly on January 12, 1815, which was entitled "National Safety".

In 1813, he joined the faculty at his alma mater, Transylvania University, as a part-time professor of astronomy, and he was elected to the school's Board of Trustees the following year.

[8] On March 4, 1820, he was elected by the Board of Trustees to serve as the first president of Centre College,[2] which had been founded in Danville, Kentucky, in January 1819.