He earned an Artium Baccalaureus degree from Amherst College in 1952, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1957.
McClure served in the United States Army from 1952 to 1954 in ordnance and as an electronics instructor in Huntsville, Alabama, becoming a corporal.
McClure worked in private practice in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, from 1965 to 1984 and district attorney for Union County from 1974 to 1975.
He was the president judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the 17th Judicial District of Pennsylvania in Snyder and Union County from 1984 to 1990.
McClure was nominated by President George H. W. Bush on January 24, 1990, to a seat vacated by Judge William Joseph Nealon Jr.