 After attendance at Halifax private schools, McColough enrolled at Dalhousie University, and graduated in 1943; he eventually received an honorary degree from Dalhousie later in life.After Dalhousie, McColough studied at Osgoode Law School in Toronto, and finally at the Harvard Business School, after briefly serving in the British Navy in World War II.McColough graduated from Harvard Business School in 1949, and became a US citizen in 1956.