Remembering Lois

April 12, 2026, would have been Lois McClure’s 100th birthday.

As the milestone approached, her daughter Barbara found herself thinking about how best to honor her mother’s life and the values she carried throughout it. 

With her late husband, J. Warren “Mac” McClure, Lois helped build a remarkable philanthropic legacy rooted in place. Across Vermont, the impact of that generosity can be seen in institutions and organizations that serve communities every day. 

Lois’s family had been stewards of the Burlington Free Press since 1890, and when Mac joined the leadership team in 1952, the two of them took that legacy further, leaving a mark on this state that is still felt today. Their support can be seen across Vermont, from the expansion of the University of Vermont Library, named for Lois’s father, to a wing of the University of Vermont Medical Center. They’re present in places where Vermonters receive care and comfort, including the Lois McClure–Bea Tabakin Hope Lodge and the McClure–Miller Respite House.

Despite the tremendous impact she created, Lois did not begin her life thinking of herself as a philanthropist. She began as many Vermonters do, caring for her family, volunteering in her community, and showing up where help was needed. Over time, those acts of care grew into something larger, a lifetime of supporting organizations and neighbors across Vermont. 

Lois often shared a simple philosophy: “Bloom where you are planted: Support the community in which you live.” 

Working through Lois’s donor advised fund at the Vermont Community Foundation (VCF), Barbara chose to mark the milestone by awarding ten final gifts of $100,000 each to Vermont nonprofits doing the kind of work Lois cared about most. She came to the process with a clear sense of the organizations she wanted to support, creating a meaningful way to honor her mother and close out Lois’s personal giving. 

The Vermont Community Foundation worked with Barbara to finalize the slate of grants, make the gifts through Lois’s donor advised fund, and share the news with the nonprofits receiving them. 

A donor advised fund allows individuals and families to set aside charitable dollars and recommend grants to the organizations they care about over time. For Barbara, it provided a way to carry forward her mother’s intentions while also creating a meaningful moment of remembrance. 

On April 7, leaders from the organizations receiving these gifts gathered virtually to raise a glass in Lois’s honor, a simple Vermont toast to a woman who spent her life caring for the place she called home.

Nonprofit leaders gathered virtually on the afternoon of April 7, 2026 to toast a century of Lois McClure’s care for Vermont.

“In the same way that you can’t separate salt from seawater without getting something else, you can’t separate Mac and Lois McClure from Shelburne Museum. We would be a different organization altogether,” shared Thomas Denenberg, Shelburne Museum Director.

“All of us at Shelburne Farms are deeply grateful to Lois and Mac McClure for everything that they have helped to make possible on our 1,400-acre farm-based campus, from the McClure Center for School Programs in the Farm Barn, where thousands of school children learn about farming, food, and fiber, to the now 30-year-old standing seam copper roof that protects the magnificent Breeding Barn, keeping it safe and dry,” reflected Sue Dixon, Special Gifts Officer, Shelburne Farms.

“My heart is full knowing that Lois believed in us and loved us as much as we loved her,” added Angela Putnam, Burlington Hope Lodge General Manager.

When the toast was nearly at its close, Michael Monte, Chief Executive Officer, Champlain Housing Trust, reflected on the impact of Lois’s contributions over time, “There’s a tree that I walk by every day, that has the names of many of our earliest supporters. The McClure name is right in the middle. And it just hit me about that old saying, ‘the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.’ And I thought about just how many trees Lois McClure planted. She seeded a forest, really.”

She did indeed.

The organizations that received gifts are:

• Champlain Housing Trust 
• COTS 
• Lake Champlain Maritime Museum 
• American Cancer Society: Lois McClure–Bea Tabakin Hope Lodge 
• McClure–Miller Respite House 
• Press Forward Vermont, a Vermont Community Foundation initiative 
• Shelburne Farms 
• Shelburne Museum 
• Vermont Community Foundation’s Philanthropic Leadership Fund 
• Vermont Public Media 

Together, they will continue the work Lois believed in and the communities she helped strengthen. 

While these grants are, in many ways, the culmination of Lois’s personal giving, Barbara is quick to point out that they are not the end of her impact. 

In November 2025, the Vermont Community Foundation announced that after passing away at the age of 98 earlier that year, Lois McClure had left a gift of more than $20 million to expand education and training pathways to Vermont’s most promising jobs. 

The gift will be stewarded by the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation, a supporting organization of the Vermont Community Foundation, and received in installments through 2030. 

Lois’s generosity continues to ripple outward through the organizations she supported, through the work of the J. Warren & Lois McClure Foundation, and through the Vermont Community Foundation.