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Encountering Evanston History: A Panel Discussion

Join us for a fascinating conversation about Evanston history.

Several of the authors who wrote Encountering Evanston History, a newly released book that contains 75 fascinating stories about Evanston and its history, will be in conversation to discuss some of Evanston's historical highlights.

Please join Katharine Ade, Anne Bodine, Ellen Galland, Mary Helt Gavin, Larry Gavin, Shawn Jones, Morris ("Dino") Robinson, and Victoria Scott.

All of the authors are Evanstonians and have been actively engaged in the community. Many were reporters for the Evanston RoundTable newspaper and wrote extensively about the city, the schools, the arts and the many important issues facing the community. Some are noted local historians. 

Copies of Encountering Evanston History will be available for purchase at the event, provided by Bookends & Beginnings Bookstore. You can also find a library book here. For more information about the book, visit https://www.evanstonbook.com/

Katharine Ade was the designer and graphic artist for the Evanston RoundTable newspaper (print edition from 1998-2019) and its 25 magazines, for which she won many awards. She is a graduate of the Art Institute of Chicago and holds a master’s degree in visual arts from Illinois Institute of Technology.

Anne Bodine has been a part of The Evanston RoundTable since 2008 as a reporter covering businesses and institutions, arts and entertainment, and health and wellness. More recently, she has stepped into an editorial role.  She holds a master’s degree in education and serves on the Board of the Warren Cherry Scholarship Fund. She lives in Evanston with her husband and three children. 

Ellen Galland has lived in Evanston since 1977. Her three daughters went through the Evanston school system and her twin granddaughters are now at Dewey School. She has had an architectural practice in Evanston since 1983. She graduated from Vassar College and the University of Illinois School of Architecture. She has served on the boards of Housing Options for the Mentally Ill in Evanston, now Impact
Behavioral Health Partners, the Evanston History Center, and the Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse. For more than 20 years she has written articles for the RoundTable, including, at one time, the biweekly column “Ask An Architect”.

Mary Helt Gavin is the former President of RoundTable NFP. She was the Manager of the RoundTable LLC, and the publisher and a journalist of the Evanston RoundTable newspaper since 1998. She taught at Oakton Community College, Illinois Institute of Technology and Loyola University, served on Evanston’s Mental Health Board, and co-founded Soup at Six, Evanston’s first soup kitchen, which she managed for 20 years. As publisher and manager of the RoundTable, she received the Studs Terkel award and the Evanston Chamber of Commerce Small Businessperson of the Year award. She and her husband, Larry, have lived in Evanston for more than 40 years; their two children attended District 65 schools and ETHS.

Larry Gavin co-founded Evanston RoundTable newspaper in 1998 and served as an editor/reporter for 20 plus years, receiving many journalism awards. He practiced law for 36 years, ranking as a top business litigation attorney in Chicago. He holds a J.D. degree from University of Michigan Law School. He co-founded and serves as a Board member of Housing Options for the Mentally Ill in Evanston, now Impact Behavioral Health Partners. He also co-founded and volunteers at Soup at Six, in addition to volunteering in many other community organizations. He has been an Evanston resident since 1978.

Shawn Jones practices law in downtown Evanston as a small business and real estate attorney. Hanging out his shingle in 2011, he previously worked for a small firm in Atlanta after obtaining his law degree from Georgia State University’s night school. He covered Evanston City Council for the Evanston Roundtable from 2010 through 2020, sometimes under the alias “Dirk Cumulo.” Previous jobs include dishwasher, construction worker, door to door solicitor, JC Penney janitor, bookstore section manager, and US Department of Labor writer-editor.

Morris (Dino) Robinson Jr. has been a resident of Evanston for over 40 years. Dino is a graduate of Loyola University with a B.A. in Design and a minor in African American Studies. In 1995, Dino founded what became known as Shorefront, an archival organization of more than 500 linear feet of materials illustrating the lives and experience of Blacks on the North Shore for public use.

Victoria Scott’s first RoundTable story, the profile of a store specializing in gag gifts, appeared in the 1998 April Fools’ Day issue. She continued as a features writer and editor for the life of the print paper for which she received multiple journalism awards. She holds a BA in English and an M.A.T. from Northwestern but probably owes her – sometimes irritating – skills as a grammar and comma connoisseur to
several years as a high school English teacher. Ms. Scott, a 37-year resident of Evanston, is married and has three children who graduated from ETHS.

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