Introducing Barry Gordon ’87, P’21 New Board Chair has many connections to Crescent
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s he takes on a new role as Chair of the Board of Governors, Barry Gordon ’87, P’21 is adding another link to his long chain of connections with Crescent School. 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 was two years old then, and he 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 went to the nearby Blythwood Junior Public School before enrolling at Crescent in Grade 7. He says the transition to being the “Headmaster’s kid” at school was fairly smooth. “My father, to his credit, went out of his way to tell everybody that I had to pull my own weight,” says Barry. Barry remembers many of his Crescent teachers who had a strong influence on his learning. He says Crescent’s current emphasis on the importance of relational learning fits with his school experience. “That boys will learn well from anyone they have a relationship with, no matter what the subject is, that’s definitely true,” says Barry. He says his favourite subjects tended to correlate with his favourite teachers. “For example, math teacher Paul Duckett had a huge impact,” he says. “And for science, ’Doc’ Anderson and Jim Wright were great guys who made it interesting.” 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.
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Crescent School
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Since 1913