‘Citizen of Year’ Honors to Rose Gilbert

Rose Gilbert, the teaching dynamo who has been the inspiration and financial force behind the $4.6-million Maggie Gilbert Aquatic Center at Palisades Charter High School, has gained yet another honor: Citizen of the Year. This award has been presented by the Palisadian-Post since 1947. ‘Rose was teaching English when I went through PaliHi in the late 1960s,’ said Post Publisher Roberta Donohue, ‘and she was still teaching when my daughter Jenny was a student just a few years ago. So it’s a pleasure to now be in a position to honor ‘Mama G.’ with this award.’ Gilbert, 91, joined the Palisades High faculty when the school opened in 1961, and she continues to teach a full load: four AP English courses. After her daughter Maggie (a former Junior Olympics swimmer) died of an embolism in 2004 at age 54, Gilbert launched the campaign to build a pool on campus’beginning with a $1 million donation. She has since contributed an additional $1.1 million, while also giving the school a $750,000 loan to help complete construction by early summer. ‘Rose deserves this prestigious award for her vision and her generosity in making this aquatic center a reality,’ said Jeanne Goldsmith (chair of the pool’s fundraising committee) in her nominating letter.   ’This recreational facility will not only ensure that each student that graduates from Palisades High is water safe, but it will give our community a place to gather, to teach our children to swim, watch swim meets and water polo matches, to exercise and enjoy the benefits of aquatic recreation.’ Ann Davenport, director of academic planning at PaliHi, noted that ‘without Mrs. Gilbert’s donations and support, we would not have been able to afford a swimming complex. [She has also] been recognized on television, in the newspapers and magazines as being an outstanding, long serving and dedicated educator.’   Gilbert, who inherited millions from her late husband Sam and lives up above the Getty Villa, has always made it clear to her students that she has plenty of money and doesn’t need to work, but that she simply loves teaching. ‘I had her as a teacher and she was very tough,’ recalled past ‘Citizen’ Randy Young, a 1971 graduate, and a member of the Post’s Citizen of the Year committee. ‘She had a huge impact on all her students.’ He also appreciates ‘her amazing spirit and wonderful sense of humor,’ recalling the day they were studying Freud and ‘she came into the classroom wearing Mickey Mouse ears and a slip over her dress that she called her Freudian slip.’ Wrote Interim Principal Marcia Haskin in her nomination letter: ‘Walk by Room A204 any day of the week and you will see ‘Mama G. on fire,’ standing at her podium, reciting poetry or explicating text from assigned reading. The students are rapt with attention and truly comprehend that they are being taught by a veritable ‘celebrity’ in the world of education.’ The Citizen of the Year banquet, also featuring the Golden Sparkplug awards presented by the Community Council, will be held on Thursday evening, April 22, at the American Legion hall on La Cruz Drive. Ticket information will be provided in next week’s issue.