He was the son of Wade Hampton McCree Sr., a graduate of Fisk University who had worked his way through college as a butler and who became the first African-American pharmacist and pharmacy owner in Iowa.

[2] He was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa society and graduated summa cum laude in 1941 with an Artium Baccalaureus degree.

[2] McCree and his wife, Dores, a graduate of Simmons College, then moved to her hometown of Detroit, Michigan where they raised three children.

He began his long career in public service in 1953 when was appointed to the Workman's Compensation Commission by Michigan Governor G. Mennen Williams.

[3] McCree was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on August 16, 1966, to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, to a new seat authorized by 80 Stat.

He was also a founder of the statewide Higher Education Opportunity Committee, a program which identifies promising middle school students and provides them with college scholarships.

[4] McCree resigned his commission as Solicitor General after the end of the Supreme Court's Term in June 1981, after Republican President Ronald Reagan took office.

[6] McCree died on August 30, 1987, at age 67 of bone cancer and a heart ailment at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan.

[7] His son, Wade Harper McCree III, served as a 3rd Circuit Court judge in Wayne County, Michigan, from 2006 until May 2013.