Claire Z. Macfarlane

1927 - 2024

Claire Z Macfarlane

Concord, NH - Family, Children, and Art were everything for Claire. She and her husband Noble (Known to his friends as Mac) raised their four children in Lexington, Kentucky. He was a pediatrician and she was a Kindergarten and Art teacher at The Lexington School, which all their children attended. In an Alumni Questionnaire from Skidmore College, (her alma mater) Claire was asked "What Accomplishment are you are most proud of?" her reply: "The children we raised and the children I taught who are so accomplished – many in Art".

After teaching at the Lexington School, Claire helped care for her mother as she experienced Alzheimer's. She would go on to advocate and fundraise for Alzheimer's raising over one million dollars for Alzheimer's research.

After Mac's retirement they became adventurers. They traveled the World – Central and South America, Canada, Europe, Far East, Australia, and New Zealand. They also split their time between their home in Lexington and Sandusky, Ohio where Claire was born. In Sandusky, they lived in the house that her father built on the Cedar Point Chaussee on Lake Erie. Sandusky was a happy place for them both.

Claire was preceded in death by her husband of 57 years Noble Macfarlane Jr. She is survived by her two sons and their families: Sandy and Christiana Macfarlane of Piedmont, CA (Noble Macfarlane and Hannah Lennett of Amsterdam, NL; Peter Macfarlane and Abby Halperin of Berkeley, CA and their daughter Eleanor), Duncan and Meredith Macfarlane of Charlottesville, VA (Duncan and Genevieve Macfarlane of Easton, MD; Stuart and Katina Macfarlane of Raleigh, NC and their daughter Margaret and son Shep; Christopher Macfarlane and Caroline Vesey of Washington, DC) and her two daughters and their families: Lindsay and Bernie Maurer (Pax and Wyatt Maurer) of Boston, and Stuart and Rolf Gesen of Concord, NH (Hollis and Isabel Gesen of Boston, Clark Gesen of Concord NH, Hannah and Michael Slafsky of Concord, NH and their two sons Warner and Hartford), her sister-in-law Sara Allen of Gilford NH and many nieces and nephews.

A celebration of her life will be held Saturday, July 13th at 10:30 am at the South Church, 27 Pleasant St., Concord, N.H. Private family burial will be held later at Oakland Cemetery in Sandusky, OH. In lieu of flowers, the family hopes that you make a contribution in Claire's name to a charity of your choice to improve the lives of children.