Torch - Spring/Summer 2019

In writing about Chown for the Old Girls Lifetime Achievement Award, alumna and fellow lawyer Jane Langford called her “a strong role model and fierce spokesperson for female practitioners everywhere,” as well as “always motivated by a desire to build a stronger, more equitable and diverse profession.” In retirement, Chown is still pursuing new learning—she’s a student of the Italian language during her many trips to that country—as well as enjoying a new role as grandmother. Chown credits Havergal with helping to foster her own zeal for helping women succeed. “I think one of the really good things Havergal does is encourage young women to have a voice. It’s confidence- building and showing girls they can be leaders and they can function in many spheres. That’s very good training for the leadership challenges you actually do find in in the workplace,” she says.

A Havergal student from Grade 8 to 13, Chown says she transferred from public school because her parents thought she needed more intellectual stimulation. She remembers being impressed by the smaller classes and the fact that students took what they were studying more seriously. She also liked that the school encouraged her to try sports, even though she didn’t consider herself a great athlete. She played on the Field Hockey team. In her graduating year, she was elected as School Captain by her peers. After graduation, Chown trained as a teacher and taught for five years in Scarborough, Ont., before entering law school as a mature student and starting an almost 30-year career as a litigator specializing in family law and medical malpractice. She had twin boys in her first year of practise. Working at the law firm McCarthy Tétrault, Chown rose to the level of Ontario Regional Managing Partner and, along the way, led many initiatives to improve gender diversity, pushing her firm to establish policies that would improve the work environment and partnership opportunities for women. By the time she retired in 2008, Chown had been awarded the Law Society Medal, the most significant honour a lawyer can receive for making a unique contribution to the legal profession in Ontario. She was also awarded the 2008 President’s Award by the Women’s Law Association of Ontario, the organization’s highest honour.

Following the varied careers of Old Girls

From its founding to today, Havergal has always gained inspiration from the diversity of paths that Old Girls have carved after graduation. Students go off in so many directions that it’s hard to be representative in showing how far they can go, but a handful of examples can show the variety in their trajectories. Here are three that illustrate the movement of Old Girls from student to career women, in fields including law, medicine and the world of public service and business. Looking back, each has rich memories of their educational life here and a strong sense of Havergal’s influence on their mindset as they took on the world. Kirby Chown has spent her career in the field of law and received the Old Girls Lifetime Achievement Award in 2008 in recognition of advancing women in the legal profession. But it’s a literature lesson that stayed with her from her days at Havergal. “An English teacher named Miss Muckle encouraged all of us to have real respect for the literature that we were reviewing and studying,” says Chown when asked to name something from Havergal that had an impact on her life. “What really impressed me about her was she was very severe. She really stressed that you had to work hard, and that if you were going to understand Shakespeare or a poem or short story you had to devote real time and attention to it. I think the valuing of intellectual pursuits, along with the understanding that they require some work, were excellent lessons for our age and stage and have stood me well during the rest of my life.” Chown adds that Muckle also had another minor influence on her habits with respect to writing in books. “She said you could never write in a book in pen. You were allowed only pencil. And I remember that admonition. It took me a long time to get over that,” she says with a laugh. Kirby Chown 1965

Ludemus photo from 1965.

I think one of the really good things Havergal does is encourage young women to have a voice.

— Kirby Chown 1965

TABLE OF CONTENTS | SPRING/SUMMER 2019 • TORCH 19