Gwendolyn Cleghorn

Sept. 23, 1930-Feb. 2, 2015

Long-time Atlanta educator Gwendolyn Michael Cleghorn died peacefully at home Monday, Feb. 2 at age 84 from complications from Leukemia, which she quietly and courageously battled for 15 years.

In a career that spanned 50 years, Mrs. Cleghorn shaped and guided four leading Atlanta independent schools with her extraordinary intelligence, inspiring leadership, ever-present grace, profound faith and abiding passion for bringing out the best in every student she touched. She also served as a builder, elder and leader of Trinity Presbyterian Church in multiple roles, responding to God’s grace by loving the Lord with all her “heart, strength, soul and mind.”

Mrs. Cleghorn was born Sept. 23, 1930, in “Faulkner Country” in Rienzi, Mississippi, where she grew up with her two sisters and one brother on their parents’ farm. Her mother, Ruby, taught them the value of education and the love of teaching, while their father, Nolen, modeled the meaning of hard work, the priority of family and the responsibility of community leadership.

After receiving an undergraduate degree from the Mississippi University for Women, she moved to Atlanta, where she received a Master’s Degree from Emory University. In 1954, Dr. William Pressly recruited her to teach at the then-recently established Westminster Schools, where she held various roles over four decades, including Advanced Placement English teacher, Head of the Girls School English Department, Senior Class Advisor, Girls College Counselor and Assistant Principal of the High School. She was named Georgia Star Teacher six times, selected by her most exceptional students.

In 1995, Mrs. Cleghorn began an association with the Wesleyan School, as it moved to a new campus and added a high school. She became Wesleyan’s first Middle and High School Principal and the high school building there is named for her. She “retired” again only to be recruited to serve for two years as the Head of School at Trinity School, 2000 -2002, which she had helped launch out of Trinity Presbyterian Church decades earlier. At Trinity School, Mrs. Cleghorn mentored and developed many teachers, deepened the support of its families and helped the school prepare for its move to a new campus, its current location.

Acting out of her strong belief in single-gender, secondary school education, her next endeavor was to advise the founders of the Atlanta Girls School, beginning in 2000. She later served multiple terms on the AGS Board of Trustees and invested herself deeply in bringing a diverse, accessible and progressive girls-only school into the mix of Atlanta independent schools.

Throughout her career, Mrs. Cleghorn was a pioneer in advancing the role of women at the highest levels of independent education and at Trinity Presbyterian, where she served as the first female Clerk of Session in the 1970s and as a trustee. Among other “female firsts” was her service as president of the Southern Association of College Admissions Counselors. She also read Advance Placement exams for years and consulted for the College Board. She served on multiple civic and non-profit boards in Atlanta, including Interfaith Inc. and the Atlanta Presbytery Council. She also loved reading applications for the Erskine Love scholarships offered by Printpack Inc.

A woman of dignity, poise, gentleness and beauty, Mrs. Cleghorn was a “steal magnolia” before the term was coined. Described in one Westminster publication as a “woman of wit and whimsy,” she inspired countless girls and women and also stood shoulder to shoulder with men of power and influence as colleagues and peers. Divorced in 1974, she was a strong, devoted and loving “single parent” whose boundless energy enabled her to lead across multiple arenas of life while also raising a family. Having taught Atlantans for a half-century, her legacies are legion.

Upon her retirement from Westminster, a profile in the annual yearbook included these words: “We will always remember her soft voice with its insightful words, her brilliant mind shining with the fire of a steadily blazing star. Mrs. Cleghorn, we wish you the best of life, for you have shown it to us.” The same profile included a portion of a poem titled “The Rock” by T.S. Eliot, which reflects Mrs. Cleghorn’s priorities of God, Family and Education.

Shall we not bring to Your service

all our powers.

For life, dignity, grace and order,

And intellectual pleasures of the

senses?

The Lord who created must wish

us to create

And employ our creation again in

His service

Which is already His service in

creating.

She is survived by her daughter, Nona Cleghorn Gibbs of Roswell, and her son, Rev. John Cleghorn, of Charlotte, NC; sisters Elizabeth Curlee of Booneville, MS., and Iris Easterling of Hattiesburg, MS.; her son-in-law Gerald Gibbs and daughter-in-law Ellison Kelly Cleghorn; granddaughters Elisabeth Saxon Gibbs, Lilya Michaela Gibbs, Ellison Barrett Cleghorn and Sophie Reese Michael Cleghorn, in addition to many nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by her brother, Forrest Michael of Rienzi, MS. She was previously married to the late Reese Cleghorn, former associate editor of the Atlanta Journal.

A visitation will be held at H. M. Patterson & Son - Spring Hill, Thursday, Feb. 5 from 6 until 8 o'clock. A worship service of witness to the resurrection will be held at 11 o'clock at Trinity Presbyterian Church on Friday, Feb. 6, followed by a reception at the church. Memorial gifts can be made to The Westminster Schools – Cleghorn Fund or Trinity Presbyterian Church.