It is hard to think of a more consequential Forest Parker than Dorothy Gillian. And it is hard to think of Forest Park without her.
Gillian, 69, died Monday with her family at her side.
Without ever having sought public office – though she was elected-adjacent owing to the efforts of her husband, Tim – Dorothy Gillian impacted this village in countless positive ways. Both as a volunteer across issues and causes and as a business person, Gillian was always involved.
A lifelong Forest Parker, Gillian was deeply rooted here but never seemed confined by this place as we have sometimes observed Forest Park lifers to be. She was open to change; she drove change in the village.
She was early in the effort to bring local restaurants back to Madison Street when she opened My Sister’s Café for five years. And in that era she played a lead role in the resurgence of the essential Forest Park thoroughfare through the Main Street program and then as an essential leader of the Chamber of Commerce across decades. Gillian was tireless in organizing people and events to lift the reputation of Forest Park as a destination.
Later she made herself perhaps Forest Park’s leading real estate agent. Certainly no one knew the residential housing market in the village better than she did during her 19 years as a Realtor.
She was also devoted to her family and became a champion for her daughter Anna when she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis as an infant. Both supporting her child and battling the illness, the Gillian family has raised some $750,000 to fight cystic fibrosis. Anna and Dorothy celebrated the science that allowed Anna not only to live but, just last year, to have a child of her own.
We share the loss of Dorothy Gillian with thanks for a life well lived and shared with this village.
No Kings in Forest Park
Forest Park has a growing and determined progressive voice. The village keeps getting more blue in its presidential election choices. So we were not surprised by the modest but still healthy turnout last Saturday for Forest Park’s somewhat impromptu “No Kings” protest at Constitution Court.
Instigated by none other than Tom Holmes, a longtime Review columnist, the event drew an estimated 200 people. Far more than the 10 people Holmes’ thought might show.
With signs, drums, anger and hope, the local protesters made plain that they are fed up with the direction Donald Trump is trying to take America in his second term.
Mayor Rory Hoskins and Commissioner Michelle Melin-Rogovin were among the throng. A couple of local Madison Street eateries offered beverages to the crowd, which stretched from U3 Coffee to Louie’s Grill.
A good start, as it seems clear that more national protests lie ahead.