Jan MacKinnon · 2002 Honoree

Jan MacKinnon used to feel slightly embarrassed to admit that she grew up in Hollywood, California. Like Capitol Hill, it’s a place with an oversized reputation and a cast of high profile people. The interesting thing, though, is that, most of what goes on in both places is, as Jan puts it “not stars and senators but ordinary life.” For her, ordinary life in California meant Hollywood High and the University of California at Riverside (outside LA); on this coast it has meant the idealism of government service, marriage to David MacKinnon, an urban planner, thirty years on Seventh Street Northeast, raising Rebecca, Tim and Emily there, running scout troops and coaching girls’ softball and a steady progression from volunteer mom to professional school computer expert and librarian.

It all began at Peabody where Jan’s children started their schooling. Veola Jackson was principal there and Jan responded to her welcoming attitude to parents by helping out in the classroom. Jan then worked on setting up an arts program for what later became Stuart-Hobson Middle School. She became so interested in the new technologies that were beginning to appear in schools, that she finally left her job as a staff assistant to School Board member Bob Boyd and went to the University of Maryland for an MA program for school librarians. Jan was hired by Veola Jackson as librarian at Stuart-Hobson. She spent ten years there, working with teachers to integrate computers into many different aspects of learning. Four years ago, Jan came back to Peabody, this time not as a volunteer but as that school’s librarian. The computers aren’t used too much, but the hugs of the students and the fun of children’s picture books more than compensate for Jan.

Jan has great admiration for the parents who organize and run various fundraising events for the schools. The annual Capitol Hill Classic footrace is a perfect example. However her focus was always on the classroom. “I just have always loved working with the kids,” she says. The African proverb says that to raise a child it takes a village. Jan’s attitude is like that. She made things happen not just for her own children but for a great many in our Capitol Hill village.