Tom McCoy was born and raised in Long Beach, Calfornia, U.S.A. Since a young age he showed a lively interest in natural history and started collection objects such as fossils, seashells, reptiles, birds and, of course plants.

The latter gradually became his passion and took him to places in Asia, Americas, Africa, Arabia and Madagascar. He was estute enough to secure for himself employment that took him to many parts of the world and, some 30 years ago, landed him in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, where he has since lived with his family.

McCoy has acquired a broad and detailed knowledge in various fields of natural history, including botany, herpetology, malacology, general zoology and others. His passion for botony has been of the broadest kind but gradually focused on the genus Aloe. He authored or co-authored a number of publications in this field, including the description of over fifty new Aloe species, spread widely through Africa and Arabia. He has lectured on aloes and other botanical subjects at various international conferences.

At his home in California, he keeps what is probably the largest fully-documented, living collection of aloes in existence. At his Arabian home, he keeps a smaller collection to study the genus further.

Tom McCoy is a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London, as well as a member of the American Society of Plant Taxonomies. The Royal Society of South Africa, the Society of Authors, the Botanical Society of America, the East African Natural History Society and the Botanical Society of South Africa.