Lois McClure Leaves Over $20 Million to Support Education and Training Pathways to Vermont’s Promising Jobs
Middlebury, Vermont — Lois McClure, who passed away in January 2025 at the age of 98, has left a final 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.
For three decades, the McClure Foundation has invested in efforts that inspire young people, drive workforce development, and contribute to community resilience. With Lois’s bequest, the Foundation will expand its commitment to opening doors to lifelong opportunities for Vermonters.
The McClure Foundation is widely known for producing the Vermont’s Most Promising Jobs resource in partnership with the Vermont Department of Labor. It also helps make college the easy choice for young Vermonters through the Free Degree Promise, which offers high school students fast-track pathways to debt-free associate degrees. In addition, the Foundation invests in strengthening Vermont’s teacher workforce and supporting innovative approaches that help young people thrive after high school.
For Lois and her late husband, J. Warren “Mac” McClure, this gift is the capstone of more than fifty years of philanthropy.
“My parents believed in the power of community and cared deeply for Vermont,” said Barbara Benedict, Lois and Mac’s daughter and longtime president of the McClure Foundation. “They saw themselves as stewards, with a responsibility to take the long view in improving the world around us. Without a doubt, this state’s most promising resource is its young people. Mac and Lois would be proud to see these funds build life-changing opportunities for Vermonters.”
Together, Lois and Mac built a legacy of generosity rooted in place, becoming the largest-ever donors to Vermont through the Vermont Community Foundation.
“One of Mac and Lois’s kernels of advice was to ‘Bloom where you are planted,’” said Dan Smith, President and CEO of the Vermont Community Foundation. “They embodied that in a legacy of generosity and leadership that lives on in many ways—through their family, through the countless organizations and projects they supported, and through the inspiring model of philanthropy they established at the McClure Foundation.”
At a time when high school completion and college continuation rates are in decline, Lois’s gift will allow the McClure Foundation to grow its grantmaking, its research, and its partnerships to strengthen the systems that build pathways to Vermont’s promising jobs.
“Young people make a better Vermont, and we believe that Vermont can work better for them,” said Carolyn Weir, Executive Director of the McClure Foundation. “We will use this remarkable gift to help young Vermonters find hope in the futures they’re imagining and grow the opportunities available to get there.”
Inspired by Lois's incredible legacy of generosity?
The McClure Foundation legacy has been in the making for 30 years. Explore how you can make a difference in Vermont by working with the Vermont Community Foundation.