Evelyn Dawn; Founded Private Schools

Evelyn Dawn, 93, an educator who established such private schools as Rolling Hills Country Day School. Born Evelyn Dawn Thomas in Long Beach, she was raised in Glendale and educated at USC. Even though she married and brought up two daughters, she used “Miss Dawn” as her professional name throughout her long and innovative educational career. Her Miss Dawn’s Preschool, which opened in Redondo Beach in 1953, was so popular that parents of her pupils asked that she expand it to include primary grades. In 1961 she founded Rolling Hills Country Day School in Rolling Hills Estates. The school moved to its current site at Crenshaw Boulevard and Palos Verdes Drive North in 1963 and expanded through eighth grade in 1968. With an enrollment of only a few hundred students, classes were limited to 10 pupils and children were offered some subjects far earlier than in public schools. Believing “children are like little sponges ready to soak up everything,” Miss Dawn had her English-speaking charges singing Spanish songs at the age of 4, reading easily by 5, writing in cursive by 6 and writing and illustrating their own stories by 7. For many years, she also offered Miss Dawn’s Swim School for children. Her academic summer school and Country Day Camp are still operating. Dawn opened Rolling Hills Preparatory School in 1981. She also established Canyon Verde Schools in Torrance in 1977 to serve children and adults with disabilities. On Sunday in Rolling Hills Estates.