ODE TO SCHOOL

Former Lake Forest Country Day School student Gillian Growdon—the mother of a seventh grader at the school and a pair of LFCDS graduates—is thrilled to exalt the school’s mission as its new president of the board of trustees.

BY BILL MCLEAN ILLUSTRATION BY BARRY BLITT

When she was a Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS) student from kindergarten to third grade, Gillian Growdon wrote a poem that touched on love.

No, not that kind of love.

Think “love,” as the word denoting “zero” in a sport involving a court and yellow balls.

“It was an ode to my tennis racket,” Growdon recalls. “I wrote it from my racket’s perspective.

“Terrible poetry,” she adds with a smile.

Growdon began taking a swing at her duties as the new Lake Forest Country Day School President of the Board of Trustees in July. Look for her to connect often—with sweet-spot shots.

The Lake Forest resident adores the place up and down, from its mission and faculty and staff to its students and parent community and alumni.

“To know and love every student is at the core of our school’s mission, and it strengthens Lake Forest Country Day School’s sense of community,” says Growdon, who previously served the school as vice president of the board of trustees and as a co-chair of the Head of School search that brought John Melton to the post last summer. “We have a happy, fully engaged faculty. Some teachers have been here for more than 30 years. And we have talented people on our board.

“I like to be very organized and linear with how I use my time. As board president, I want to bring out the best in each board member.”

Gillian and her husband, John, are parents of LFCDS graduates Stewart, 17, and Reese, 15. Their other son, Lewis, is a seventh grader and a soccer player at the school, a coeducational, independent private school—founded in 1888—for students ages 2 to eighth grade, “I’ve heard Stewart and Reese use words like ‘special’ and ‘perfect experience’ when describing Lake Forest Country Day School,” Growdon says, adding Stewart now attends Wayland Academy in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, and Reese is a student at Loomis Chaffee School (Gillian’s alma mater) in Windsor, Connecticut. “They truly feel lucky and grateful for having gone to a school that prepared them so well for where they are now.

“They were in the car with me this summer as I drove past the school. Both looked at it and said, ‘Oh, gosh, I miss that place so much.’”

That place stresses the importance of family and the partnership of all members of the school community in the successful development of each child.

LFCDS’s mission is a comprehensive one: “Inspired teaching, academic rigor, attention to individual needs, a commitment to responsible citizenship—these principles infuse every aspect of Lake Forest Country Day School and define our dedication to producing students of strong character with a passion for learning.”

Growdon, the fourth of Barry and Mary Ann MacLean’s five children, attended Libertyville High School for her freshman year before enrolling at Loomis Chaffee School, where she took journalism, satire and philosophy courses, among others, and ran for the Pelicans’ track and cross country teams.

Barry served Mettawa as its roads commissioner before becoming a longtime mayor of the village. Mary Ann, who died in 2016, was an Illinois State Board of Education member.

“My parents were a dynamic duo,” says Growdon, who turns 50 later this month and chose to hike the Inca Trail in Peru with friends this past spring to mark the looming milestone birthday. “Mom and Dad loved to travel together. Mom had a great laugh, a wonderful sense of humor. She was always very generous with her time and valued all of her many friendships. She also was strong and a straight shooter.

“Mom needlepointed belts for the males in her lives,” the daughter continues. “I love needlepointing, too. I’ve had the hiking bug for quite some time, and I enjoy yoga. I learned how to golf, but I’m terrible. I bake. I cook. I make a killer gravy.”

Growdon majored in geology at Dartmouth College and earned her MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She met her future husband for the first time when both were employed in Silicon Valley. She worked for six years as a finance manager for a tech company and served on the board of trustees of Trinity School, an Episcopal day school (preschool through fifth grade) in Menlo Park, California. The nonprofit Random Acts of Flowers later hired her.

The Growdon family moved to Lake Forest in 2017.

“It’s such a great place to raise a family, and it’s beautiful, as you walk around it and see the lake,” Growdon says. “I remember ice skating at Winter Club of Lake Forest as a child, right around the time I was working on my poetry book. I saw Miss Sally, one of my teachers, there. Third grade is the year when students typically begin to truly bond with their teachers. I bonded with Miss Sally.

“I also remember another Lake Forest Country Day School assignment, this one food related. I brought Scotch eggs (because of her Scottish heritage) to school.”

But Growdon embraces present day Lake Forest Country Day School as much as she cherishes its past. It’s time for her to work hard and creatively with a brilliant team of trustees, rather than to figure out—all on her own—what rhymes best with “tennis” or “strings” or “grip.” The 2023-2024 LFCDS curriculum and the challenges of devising sound strategic planning genuinely excite her.

“We’re all about the whole student at Lake Forest Country Day School,” Growdon says. “There’s more to education than academic excellence. As trustees, we are committed to provide full support for the school’s mission. My family, while I was growing up, valued education highly. Parents of Lake Forest Country Day School students value what the school offers their children.

“We have a strong, caring leader in (Head of School) John Melton, who never gets rattled. Our faculty members and students are gearing up for trips to Springfield, Costa Rica, and Quebec. It’s an exciting time to be a part of the school.”

Lake Forest Country Day School is located at 145 South Green Bay Road in Lake Forest. For more information, visit lfcds.org or call 847-234-2350