‘Personally enriched our cultural life’: Vermont philanthropist Lois McClure dies at 98

Long-time Burlington resident and philanthropist Lois Jean Howe McClure died Sunday at 98.

“She has personally enriched our cultural life in Vermont and furthered our understanding of Vermont history. These are good deeds that will be felt, undoubtedly, for many generations,” Jane Osborne McKnight wrote in a 2006 nomination for McClure to be selected as Vermonter of the Year. She earned the honor in 2013.

McClure and her late husband, J. Warren “Mac” McClure, donated tens of millions of dollars to Vermont-based organizations throughout their lifetimes including more than $16 million through the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation. The couple started the foundation in 1995 with a focus on improving access for Vermonters to higher education and life-long learning.

“She outlived most of her generation and is best known to contemporary Vermonters as the namesake for buildings, scholarships, a replica canal schooner, and for the charitable foundation that she and Mac created in 1995 to continue their legacy of support for Vermonters and for Vermont,” reads an excerpt of her obituary.

The couple met after McClure had separated from her first husband Merton Ricker, with whom she had three daughters. J. Warren “Mac” McClure had come to Burlington for a leadership role at The Burlington Free Press, which was owned by her extended family.

“Mac was a tireless promoter of the newspaper and the greater Burlington area and Lois served as a constant sounding-board for his ideas while managing the household, entertaining extended family members and business associates, operating a home-based news service, and volunteering in the community,” reads the obituary by her family and the foundation.

The couple spent some time living outside of Vermont. In 1971, they moved to Rochester, NY, when J. Warren “Mac” McClure worked as Vice President of Marketing for Gannett Newspaper, the new owners of the Burlington Free Press. A few years later the McClures moved in Key Largo, Florida, where she chaired the board of the local medical center, co-managed a furniture resale shop, typed Mac’s speeches for his consultancy, according to her obituary.

What organizations did Lois Jean Howe McClure volunteer with

Among her other volunteer and philanthropy work, McClure volunteered with the American Cancer Society; work she started after the death of her daughter Judy in 1961after extended treatment for kidney cancer.

She also served as a hospital trustee, like her father and grandfather before her. In later years, McClures donated to the University of Vermont Library, named for Lois’ father David Willard, and a building for a new wing for what is now the UVM Medical Center.

The were founding members of Shelburne’s Wake Robin community.

McClure and her husband also worked to “preserve the unique history of Vermont and Lake Champlain Basin with both dollars and sustained enthusiasm.” The Lois McClure is, a now retired, full-scale replica of an 1862-class sailing canal boat, based on two shipwrecks located in Lake Champlain. It was part of a project envisioned by the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum and crafted on the Burlington waterfront by volunteers.

She, along with her husband, received honorary doctor of letters from the University of Vermont in 1983 and the Ira Allen Award in 1988.

McClure also began to donate to the Shelburne Museum in memory of her husband after his death in 2004. The money supported half-price admission for Vermonters. She also began to advocate for eldercare in an effort that ultimately created the UVM’s Center on Aging. She was the lead funder for the Bee Tabakin-Lois McClure Hope Lodge that opened in 2008 and for the Homes Forever campaign of the Champlain Housing Trust.

“When health concerns began to curtail her activities in 2015, Lois’ final personal philanthropic leadership gift was a collaboration with Bobby and Holly Miller to fund the McClure-Miller Respite House in Colchester, dedicated in 2016,” reads her obituary.