Barry Gordon ’87, P’21

When Barry Gordon ’87, P’21 took on the role of Chair of the Crescent School Board of Governors in 2016, it was another link in his long chain of connections with Crescent.

 

The connections began in 1970, when his father, Christopher Gordon, became Crescent’s seventh Headmaster. At that time, the Headmaster’s family lived on campus. Barry remembers the Manor House as his childhood home.

 

“If somebody came over, we’d go down to the school gym and shoot hoops or play ball hockey,” he says. He also recalls exploring the ravines on the edge of campus. “It was like being in the country in the city.”

 

Barry enrolled at Crescent in Grade 7. Looking back on his school years at Crescent, Barry says his experience inspired a deep love of learning.

 

“School wasn’t just a place where you went, did your time and went home,” he says. “It was as close as you could get to a family atmosphere.”

 

Barry’s Crescent journey took some turns. He spent Grades 9 and 10 in Victoria, B.C. when his father took a position as head of the Glenlyon School there, and then returned to Crescent for Grades 11 and 12. For Grade 13, Barry attended the Lycée Canadien en France, where his father had been appointed as the founding headmaster.

 

“Although I’m generously listed as a Class of 1987 alumnus, I didn’t actually graduate from Crescent,” says Barry.

 

After completing his undergraduate degree at Queen’s University, Barry earned his law degree at the University of Toronto. He is now CEO of First Asset Capital Corp.

 

Barry’s connections with Crescent continued when he and wife, Wendy, married in 1997. “We got married at Crescent, in the Formal Garden,” says Barry.

 

Their daughter, Hannah, attends Greenwood College School and their son, Oscar, is now in Grade 8 at Crescent. Being a Crescent parent gives Barry a new perspective on the school experience. He strongly encourages all parents to get involved at the school.

 

“I think families do benefit when your kids see you giving back,” he says. “If you’re involved at school that way, your kids see that and it influences the way they look at volunteerism.”

 

Barry’s volunteer service at Crescent includes previously chairing the Crescent School Foundation Board as well as serving on the Board of Governors since 2012.

 

As Chair, Barry says he wants to strengthen the school’s governance practices to help the Board function more efficiently, and to emphasize fundraising for student financial assistance as well as for “bricks and mortar” projects.

 

Barry says he wants to follow the good example of the previous Chair, Bryan Kerdman P’14. “I want everything to be going as smoothly the day I leave the job as the day I take the job.”