Having done it all, Stevenson’s Pat Wilder set to retire

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Among the numerous field trips she took Stevenson students on, Pat Wilder (right) brought a group to the Stevenson Center on Democracy, which was hosting visiting Chinese students. (Photo courtesy Pat Wilder)

Updated: February 27, 2012 8:16AM

At a time when many wanted to prevent Stevenson High School — and the northwest suburbs — from urbanizing, Pat Wilder was one school official who believed growth was unstoppable.

Certain that the only option was to prepare for change, Wilder stuffed mailboxes with referendum fliers until the post office told her to stop, and stayed at a Lincolnshire Village Board meeting hours after midnight, trying to convince voters and leaders to approve referendums and expansions.

But many say Wilder’s greatest contributions to the school came after those victories. Her career at SHS will end next week, and looking back on decades of fighting and founding, Wilder is satisfied.

“We started out as the poor child of the family,” she said, peering through the window of a sit-down restaurant in Lincolnshire. “But now, look at us.”

What Wilder looked out at as she spoke was a city with an affluent population, most of whom moved to Lincolnshire to send their children to the school she helped build.

Back in 1998, Wilder won the Heritage Award, one of the highest honors within the Stevenson community. School Board President Bruce Lubin said even that was not enough to express the gratitude the community should hold for the work Wilder did to earn that award, and the work she has done afterward.

“She could have won it again later on,” Lubin said. “I can’t think of a person who had a more direct, positive effect on the school.”

Wilder will retire Feb. 1; her final title will be school/business liaison. It is a fancy handle that, at most schools, would boil down to “career counselor,” but it is a position that, like many other aspects of SHS, she transformed from basic into something bigger and successful.

“I had the good fortune to work with some very remarkable people,” Wilder said, brushing off credit. “I sort of fell into a time when all these things were happening.”

Some of what Wilder helped to get happening include:

Helping found the Patriot Parent Association and the Stevenson Community Foundation;

Helping create the student driver program, “You’re Driving Me Crazy” and the “Odyssey” fine arts festival;

Serving on the School Board for eight years and as the executive director of the Greater Lincolnshire Chamber of Commerce;

Helping revamp the advanced placement program;

Championing the expansion of the Stevenson building, turning it into one of the largest in the state.

A lot of work from someone who hated high school when she was in it. Between her sophomore and junior years, Wilder’s family moved, and changing districts sat poorly with her.

“I was just plain mad,” she said.

But once she had her own children, she got a look at high school from a new angle.

“I found out how much fun it was, the impact you can have,” she said. “I sort of followed them into high school.”

That trip would end up taking her to possibly every mailbox that the 42 square miles of District 125 contained in the early 1990s. The School Board had elevated Rick Dufour from principal to superintendent, and he was adamant about increasing revenue to build a much larger building for what he was sure would become a much larger student body.

Wilder became one of the leads in the referendum push to keep Stevenson from splitting into two schools; part of that effort involved driving fliers from mailbox to mailbox.

“I worked hard on the referendums,” she said, a rare acceptance of credit for her work. “I was the chief mailbox stuffer. I even got a call from the postmistress in Lincolnshire, telling me to cease and desist.”

Village Hall considered filing a lawsuit to stop the expansion. The decisive meeting went long past midnight, and she stayed to the final vote. The key to everything, she said, was Dufour’s ambition for greatness at a massive school.

“He had such a wonderful vision, and it was very exciting to be a part of that,” Wilder said. “He’s a giant in the field of education.”

With the expansion successful, Stevenson became a giant of the northwest suburbs. As enrollment pushed past 4,000, school leaders found themselves with a myriad of needs to meet and interests to nurture. Where Wilder saw holes, she got a group together and fashioned a plug.

“Working in a school environment is such a collaborative and interdependent environment,” she said.

The years and the projects stacked up. Wilder has held so many positions around Stevenson that she sometimes needs a moment to remember which one she was in when she helped start or restart something. In August, she decided she had done enough.

“Old,” as she explained her reasons. “I became a grandmother.”

She set her retirement date at Feb. 1, giving herself one more full semester.

“It seemed like I had a lot of time,” she said.

Lubin said she has filled her time at Stevenson with quality work.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen her without a smile on her face,” he said. “I wish I could be as contributory to the success of Stevenson as she has been.”

And while they are benefitting from the contributions she and Dufour made, Wilder said today’s SHS leaders are achieving their own greatness.

“I’m amazed,” she said. “I don’t know how to describe the feeling. I’m just so pleased that I was able to be a part of it, and to meet these people — so much smarter than I was.”