Gary McClure Share

• email
• facebook
• linkedin
• twitter
• reddit
• google+
• pinterest

Life­long Mar­i­on res­i­dent, Gary McClure, is a retired edu­ca­tor and admin­is­tra­tor, and active mem­ber of the com­mu­ni­ty. In his for­ma­tive years he was a paper­boy, fol­low­ing suit with all of his sib­lings. After grad­u­at­ing from Mar­i­on High School, he went to col­lege at both Indi­ana Uni­ver­si­ty and Ball State Uni­ver­si­ty. He then worked as a teacher for Mar­i­on Com­mu­ni­ty Schools, and after just two years, was pro­mot­ed to the admin­is­tra­tion serv­ing as prin­ci­pal for mul­ti­ple schools with­in the sys­tem for a total of 31 years. McClure was able to retire at age 55, but soon after took on a posi­tion at Indi­ana Wes­leyan Uni­ver­si­ty as an adjunct pro­fes­sor. After 13 years work­ing in that capac­i­ty, at the age of 68, he offi­cial­ly retired and turned his atten­tion toward giv­ing back to the com­mu­ni­ty while enjoy­ing life and family.

Over the years, McClure served on many boards includ­ing the YMCA, the Boys and Girls Club, Sun­ny­crest Unit­ed Methodist Church, and Habi­tat for Human­i­ty. He has recent­ly vol­un­teered with Main Street Mar­i­on clean­ing out the old Wolfe Build­ing which is now in ren­o­va­tion. He’s assist­ed Gilead Min­istries with their Golf Scram­ble and with patient trans­porta­tion. He’s vol­un­teered at the VA North­ern IN Hos­pi­tal as a greeter. He’s men­tored stu­dents through Project Lead­er­ship, and has advo­cat­ed for improve­ments in his neigh­bor­hood includ­ing the addi­tion of sew­er & water into Hick­o­ry Hills.

Cur­rent­ly, McClure stays as busy as ever in serv­ing food four days a week at the St. Mar­tin Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter. He helps main­tain the Car­di­nal Green­way in Mar­i­on one day a week. He does cus­to­di­al work for his church, and helps with crowd con­trol for major events at IWU.

Of all his vol­un­tary com­mu­ni­ty ser­vices, help­ing out at St. Mar­tin holds deep­est mean­ing to him. McClure remem­bers his par­ents own­ing and oper­at­ing a board­ing house when he was young, and reflects on their ded­i­ca­tion into help­ing out peo­ple and fam­i­lies in need, and fur­ther­more, treat­ing them like family.

McClure pays it for­ward by treat­ing many res­i­dents here in Mar­i­on like fam­i­ly. He enjoys the fact that Mar­i­on is a small­er com­mu­ni­ty where you can get to know a lot of peo­ple, make lots of friend­ships, get involved in other’s lives, and help those in need.