Harold "Mac" & Shirley McReynolds

To honor and continue "Mac" and Shirley McReynolds’ strong legacy of community and charitable work in Lawrence County, their son Mark established the Harold “Mac” and Shirley McReynolds Fund.

Mac and Shirley McReynolds moved to Bedford from Wisconsin in 1973.  Mac was a managerial Fisheries Biologist with the U. S. Forest Service in Milwaukee and had sought a transfer to southern Indiana where they had both grown up.

Mac was raised in Milan, Indiana. He attended the tiny Milan High School which won the Indiana High School Basketball Championship in 1954. This achievement is known as the “Milan Miracle.” Although Mac had already graduated by 1954, he was well acquainted with Bobby Plump and a few others from that Milan team. 

Shirley was a native of Orange County, Indiana. She attended grade school with Larry Bird’s father, Joe Bird. Upon their return to Indiana, Shirley was selected for a faculty position with the IU School of Business after having taught business subjects in high school for many years.  

During their working years in Bedford and Bloomington and after their retirement, they were very involved in the community and gave generously of their time.  Mac served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Lawrence County Museum of History.  He created the ongoing “Brain Games” project as a fundraiser for the Museum, and since the first Brain Games in 2002, it has continued to be a fun and successful fundraising event for the Museum.

Shirley served for many years on the Board of Directors of the Bedford Regional Medical Center, including several years as Chairperson. She served on the LCCF Board where she chaired the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship selection committee for several years. She also held leadership positions in their church, Bedford First United Methodist Church. In 2006, Shirley received the LCCF “Walk with Excellence” award in the category of Business.

In 2001, Mac and Shirley organized a very successful Elderhostel program at Spring Mill. This program introduced visitors from all over the U.S. to the attractions of Lawrence County.

Shirley passed away in 2011 and Mac passed away in 2013. Their son Mark, an IT Project Manager in Bloomington, Illinois, established the Harold “Mac” and Shirley McReynolds Fund to honor his parents because, as he says, “the amount of effort and dedication that each of my parents put into the Lawrence County community and other charitable organizations was astounding, both to me and to their many friends and acquaintances.  They were fantastic people and great parents.  I definitely want their efforts to be remembered, and in fact to be magnified in the future, for the benefit of the local community.”

The Harold “Mac” & Shirley McReynolds Fund is a permanent, unrestricted endowment. It is permanently invested and will continue to fund grants in the community for many generations. Because it is an unrestricted fund, it can support programs and charitable organizations doing good work in many different areas and will fund local needs that might not be evident today but certainly will be in the future.

Through this fund, Mac and Shirley McReynolds’ dedication to their community is being magnified throughout Lawrence County and will be well into the future.