Gale Stubbs was born on July 1, 1923 in Akron, Ohio to Florence M. Harris and Elmer J. Stubbs. She graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1941, and from Mount Holyoke College in 1945. She married Robert M. McClung in July of 1949. She became the editor of the "Mount Holyoke Alumnae Quarterly" in 1961.