Carol Hitchcock Sutherland McLaren

Carol Hitchcock Sutherland McLaren was an American civic volunteer and historic preservationist whose quiet decades of community work in Connecticut and later South Carolina helped save two buildings that now stand on the National Register of Historic Places. She was born on May 19, 1932, and grew up in Derby, Connecticut, attending what was then called The Day School, now the Hopkins School, before going on to Smith College, an experience she credited with giving her a lasting education and lifelong friendships.

After marrying John Sutherland at St. Thomas More in New York City, she settled in Darien, Connecticut, where she raised three children and became deeply involved in local life, from the Junior League and the PTA to St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the Smith College Used Book Sale. It was through this kind of sustained, often unglamorous civic work that she made her most lasting public mark: she and a small group of friends led the campaign that saved what is now the Lockwood-Mathews Mansion Museum in Norwalk, Connecticut, and the Alumnae Gymnasium at Smith College from demolition, both of which are today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Following John Sutherland's death in 1982, she opened a small knitting shop in Darien called Needles with her friend and neighbor Beverly Moran. In 1985 she married Richard K. McLaren and moved with him to Charleston, South Carolina, where she became an active member of St. Philip's Church, serving on its vestry and in its flower guild. She was also a member of the Charleston Library Society, the Century Club of Charleston, and the Yeamans Hall Club, and she later volunteered with Water Missions and at Eliza's Attic and the Chapel at Bishop Gadsden Episcopal Retirement Community, where she spent her final years.

Carol Hitchcock Sutherland McLaren died on August 19, 2026, in Charleston, South Carolina, at the age of 94, with her family by her side. No cause of death has been made public. Her obituary, published through J. Henry Stuhr Downtown Chapel, described a life of wide-ranging interests, including needlepoint and knitting, English Lusterware, European history, reading, and the works of Beatrix Potter, enthusiasms that she kept up into her tenth decade. She is remembered above all for the friendships she built through Smith College, St. Philip's Church, and Bishop Gadsden, which those who knew her said mattered to her more than any of her other accomplishments.

She is survived by her three children, Barbara Sutherland Berry, Amanda Sutherland Mason, and Joseph Sutherland, five grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and five stepchildren from her marriage to Richard K. McLaren. A funeral service is scheduled to be held at St. Philip's Church in Charleston, with inurnment to follow in the church's historic churchyard.