Big 50th Birthday Evokes Memories for Sherri, Lynn Gill
Sheri and Lynn Gill. Photo by David Fairchild
The big 50th birthday party is over, but the memory lingers on.
That memory may be the most recent for Dr. Lynn E. Gill, president of the South Coast Botanic Garden Foundation, which hosted the all-day, April 17, event on spacious and blooming grounds of the South Coast Botanic Garden.
And while all the speeches, food booths, children’s activities, art show, junior golf, free music, garden tram tours and plant sales are now a thing of the past, Gill has added another satisfying reminder of how many years his life has focused on a strong attachment to the land.
It all began, he said, when he was growing up on an 80-acre cherry and apple farm with his family on the Leelanau Peninsula—“the little finger,” he called it–in northern Michigan, near Traverse City.
“I was living in a beautiful place and I wanted to preserve it,” he said by way of explaining his first venture into conservancy, when he became a member of the Leelanau Conservancy. “Conservancy is just a pattern in my life—to keep nature’s natural beauty,” he went on during a recent interview in the Foundation’s office at the Botanic Garden on Crenshaw Boulevard.
Harking back to those early days and relating them his other volunteer activities on the Peninsula, Gill said, “Growing up in a rural area, anything that needed doing was done by volunteers. It’s just what you did for generations and generations.”
Not surprising, then, that he answered the call when he was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Foundation in 2004 and served as treasurer and then president from 2006-2008 before re-assuming his current role as president.
Another activity that brings him close to nature is his presidency of Caballeros del Rancho Palos Verdes, which he describes as a “nonprofit corporation that encourages and preserves trails for equestrians and hikers, and open space for secluded beauty and natural habitat.” And, as a resident of Rolling Hills since 1994, he said he has served on a number of city committees, including landscape, view preservation, gate automation, plus a focus group to address zoning and development issues.
“People invite you to do things,” he said with a slow smile.
As for his leadership work at the Botanic Garden Foundation, he heads a board of 14 and is assisted by an executive director and office manager. “Our job,” he explained, “is to raise money [the Foundation manages a $3 million endowment], and to propose projects [to the county] to enhance the garden.
“Anything colorful and fun, we do,” he added with a smile, noting the recent Foundation-funded improvement of the parking lot. “Originally, it was just a lot of concrete, which didn’t seem very welcoming to the garden, so we proposed cut-outs in the lot for trees and plants. We suggested this to the county, through which all our ideas must be filtered, and it was approved,” adding that the arrangement with it and the Foundation is a public-private partnership. The county approved, and now the lot is no longer a vast spread of concrete, but rather is graced by the occasional relief of trees and plants. The configuration of the lot has also been changed to facilitate parking, he added. (Sixteen county employees work at the garden.)
Gill’s earlier life also included a career as an engineer, specializing in supply chain work, which began at (the former) North American Aviation Corp. Holding a degree in engineering from Michigan State University, he went on to obtain an MBA from USC in business administration. Learning about a fellowship being offered at Ohio State University, he applied, was accepted and earned his Ph.D. in economics and business administration there. With that degree, he said, he returned to USC where, as a professor, he taught and conducted research for 17 years. Since leaving USC, he’s served as a management consultant for several firms, and is currently chairman of the Impact Consulting Group. “I’m semi-retired,” he noted wryly.
For the past 36 years, Gill has shared his life with his wife, Sheri, who, after a career in teaching and as a financial planner, is now actively involved in the Peninsula Committee for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, where she has served as president. At present, she said she is on the board of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Affiliates, representing 900 volunteers in the greater Los Angeles area. She is also active in the Rolling Hills Woman’s Club and, like her husband, belongs to Caballeros del Rancho Palos Verdes.
The couple’s mutual interest in music—he’s a former president of the Peninsula Symphony–may have inspired their eldest grandson, Charlie, to take up the trumpet. At 12, he is a member of the Miraleste Intermediate School Jazz Band, and urged his grandmother to include the group in the recent Botanic Garden celebration. “After the third request,” Sheri said, “I approached the Foundation board and got its approval to invite all six bands from local intermediate and high schools. The schools were thrilled with the idea.” So, now, for the very first time, they were all together at a community event, and each one performed at different hours during the April 17 party. “And it was all because of Charlie,” she proudly noted.
The couple’s free time—when there is free time—is spent skiing (they met at the Westwood Ski Club), horseback riding, and hiking. Travel, of course, to “exotic places,” she noted. Then there is the citrus orchard on the grounds of their Rolling Hills estate. “When I’m out there, I can just hear my grandfather giving me advice about how to plant,” Gill said.
Despite their career and volunteer achievements, both agree, as Dr. Gill put it, “When it all comes down to it, family is what counts. I really think that having four grandsons is the most rewarding thing of all.” PEN