Impact of Giving: Carol and Roger McClure

by Victoria Ellwood

Carol (’55) and Roger McClure greet me at the door of their pleasant, long-time home near Dayton, just a stone’s throw from the Wright Patterson Air Force base. “We’ve been married for 70 years. Guess she’s decided I’m a keeper,” quips Roger.

We settle around their cozy kitchen table that’s adorned with a handful of seashells painted with flowers and rainbows by their great-grandchildren. We sit back and talk about their lives together, from growing up in nearby Springfield to their careers in nursing (hers) and the Air Force (his) and an adventurous hobby involving deep, underground caves (definitely his). And, of course, a recently established endowment in the College of Nursing to fund scholarships for Dayton-area nursing students.

The two grew up down the street from each other, meeting in first grade and going on their first date as seniors in high school. “Someone at our church youth group gave us tickets to the Ice Follies in Troy,” says Roger. “The date must have gone well. Before I knew it, she had me hooked!”

Roger and Carol headed to The Ohio State University together. Carol studied nursing, earning her BSN degree in 1955 in a four-year program that met year ‘round. “I chose nursing because I was always one who wanted to give back, to help others and I thought nursing would be a good opportunity,” she says. “Plus, the nursing program was going to help out with room and board.” Roger earned a BS degree in industrial education and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Air Force through the ROTC program. 

After college, the couple got married right away. Roger was called into active duty in the Air Force, and Carol worked for a time at the local tuberculosis hospital near Ohio State’s campus. Soon, they were stationed in McAllen, Texas, at the Moore Air Force Base where Roger was in pilot training. “I like to tell the story of my first job there,” Carol says. “I went to the local hospital and applied for a job, and the interviewer asked me where I went to school. I said, ‘Ohio State.’ She said, ‘You’re hired!’ The reputation of the school was that good.” 

Over the years that followed, the couple were stationed on bases across the country and for a few years in Germany. Carol focused on raising their two daughters, resuming her career in home health nursing when the girls were older. Roger flew countless missions in fighters and bombers in southeast Asia. He was commander of the B-52 unit in Arkansas and piloted B-52 bombers in multiple combat operations. The actual B-52 plane he flew is now on display at the Wright Patterson Air Force Museum.

“. . . the interviewer asked me where I went to school. I said, ‘Ohio State.’ She said, ‘You’re hired!’ The reputation of the school was that good.” – Carol McClure

Eventually the couple landed back in Dayton in the early 1980s. Settling into life “back home,” the two wrapped up their professional careers, with Roger completing his 30-year Air Force career as a colonel with the National Air and Space Intelligence Center at Wright Patterson. The two have not slowed down in the years since. 

Roger resurrected a nearly-lifelong interest that takes him deep underground. “I got interested in caving back in college, when my roommate and I would pack a duffle bag and hitchhike from campus down to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We would spend the weekend exploring. Part of learning about a cave is learning the extent of it underground.” 

Those early adventures led to years of cave exploration, study and mapping – known in the field as speleology. Early on, he was one of the founders of the Cave Research Foundation, tasked with extensive exploration and mapping of the enormous Mammoth Cave system. “It’s the longest known cave in the world,” he says. “We’ve mapped and explored 146 miles of cave passages.”

His rappelling down steep cave entrances may be in the past, but Roger is still involved with his underground interests, especially as part-owner of a destination cave not far from Mammoth Cave called Diamond Caverns. 

While her husband flew high in the sky and explored deep beneath the Earth, Carol’s interests are more of the feet-on-the-ground variety. For numerous years, she volunteered with the USO on the Wright Patterson base. Now, Mondays and Tuesdays are for line-dancing classes, and she keeps up a long tradition of volunteering at the Air Force’s Fisher House, which provides accommodations for family members of hospitalized service members and veterans. “It’s kind of like a Ronald McDonald House for the military,” she says. Her work has earned her a President’s Volunteer Service Award and a trip to the White House in 2008 and a 2021 Air Force Volunteer of the Year Award.

She’s known as the “muffin lady,” too, baking goodies for Fisher House visitors each week, and making sure to save a blueberry muffin for Roger. 

Roger has been honored for his work with the Aviation Trail, which celebrates the birthplace of aviation and includes 17 sites related to the Dayton area’s aviation heritage. 

Their dedication to service extends to Ohio State students, too. A few years ago, they established the McClure Nursing Scholarship, which focuses on Dayton-area undergraduates, and has already supported six students. This year, the couple expanded their efforts by creating an endowment with the same purpose, which awarded its first recipient this fall. 

These days, Carol and Roger – who are both 92 – mostly travel to see their extended family, including a yearly beach trip to the Jersey shore. But they’ve always been on the go. “We have a world map in the office with pins to show where we’ve traveled. Carol’s been with me to over 40 countries … we’ve traveled a lot. There’s a lot of interesting things to see out there, though it’s a little harder to travel when you get this old,” admits Roger.

“But we did just get our passports renewed,” he adds with a wink.

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Why we give

There’s a special thrill to meeting the recipients of a scholarship you established and seeing the impact your gift has made in the world. Carol McClure relates her experience meeting two students who received the McClure’s scholarship at an awards dinner: “They were so appreciative and such smart young people who talked about how hard they had worked to get where they are. It made me feel really wonderful.”

Scholarships give students in need the opportunity to focus on their studies and their passion for nursing without the burden of financial stress. Help uplift future generations of Buckeye Nurses by supporting student scholarships today.

To learn more, contact:

Courtney Shaul
Executive Director of Development
shaul.8@osu.edu
614-688-1086

Or visit nursing.osu.edu/giving/ways-give. 

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