Gant named La Cañadan of the Year

Some say she’s almost omnipresent. Wherever community activities and needs exist, longtime La Crescenta resident Mary Gant is there, lending a calming hand to ensure the event’s success.

Gant, who has assumed leadership roles in myriad volunteer positions throughout the Foothill communities for the past 45 years, will be honored as La Cañadan of the Year by the Kiwanis Club of La Cañada during a luncheon next Wednesday in Van de Kamp Hall at Descanso Gardens.

Gant was selected for the honor by past Kiwanis Club presidents, despite the fact that she’s not a La Cañada resident. Residency is not a requirement for the title, said Kiwanis Club of La Cañada President Diane Della Valle.

Every year, past presidents select an individual to represent the community, based on current and long term community service involvement. Gant best personifies that image of dedication and service, Della Valle said.

“Mary is just wonderful, and definitely deserving of this honor,” Della Valle said. “She is everywhere. She knows everybody and will go anywhere. And she’s always there without any sense of rush or stress. Mary is definitely the person I want to be when I grow up.”

Gant and her husband, Daryal, who retired from JPL as director of business affairs, have lived in the community since 1963. They have two daughters, Brenda and Tracey. Brenda earned a bachelor’s degree from UCLA and a master’s in business administration from the American Graduate School of International Management. Brenda and son Omar, 14, and daughter Summer, 19, live with the Gant family in La Crescenta. She has two other children who live in Saudi Arabia with their father. Tracey graduated from the University of California at Berkeley and earned a doctorate in cell biology from John Hopkins University. Tracey and her husband, Bryan Van Vliet have two sons, Alexander and Zachary and live in Mill Valley.

Mary Gant was born in Bensley’s Village, about 10 miles south of Richmond, Va. She has two sisters and one brother. After graduating from St. Gertrude High School in Richmond, she worked a clerk typist at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Depot in Richmond. That’s where she met and fell in love with 2nd Lt. Daryal Gant, of Dinuba, Calif. The couple married three months later.

Gant continued her education through business and art college coursework.

Since moving with her family to the West Coast, Gant has served on the La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce; the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses; Crescenta Cañada Family YMCA; Kiwanis Club of La Cañada, Stardusters; Parent Teacher Associations; the Planetary Society; La Crescenta Presbyterian Church; Caltech Women’s Club; and the Wellness Community of the Foothills.

She is an ordained elder and a deacon and has served as a Sunday school teacher, assistant Sunday school superintendent, and currently is on La Crescenta Presbyterian Church’s personnel committee.

In addition to serving as a member and president of various Parent Teacher Associations, she received the Honorary Service Award from Mt. Avenue Elementary School and the Continuing Service Award from Rosemont Middle School.

She also was named La Cañada Flintridge Chamber of Commerce Volunteer of the Year two years ago and was runner-up Ambassador of the Year last year.

Gant is currently president of the La Cañada Flintridge Tournament of Roses. She also has been involved in the clothing business for several years and operated her own business, Expressions Clothing from her home in La Crescenta. She is a prior member of the Business and Professional Women’s Association.

Her husband is a past Kiwanis Club of La Cañada president and served as director of its Soap Box Derby in 2001 and 2002. Mary Gant joined Kiwanis in 2002 and is currently a member of its board of directors. “Daryal is the one who got involved in Kiwanis at first,” Gant said, adding that she didn’t plan to get involved with the club at all. “I never thought I would. But, I did and I’m so glad I did.”

She also has served on the annual La Cañada Flintridge Wine and Gourmet Food Tasting since its inception five years ago and is co-chair of the 2008 event.

In addition to volunteerism, Gant enjoys reading and travel. She and her husband have traveled to Alaska, Europe, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as South America and southern Africa.

Gant said she considers life to be a wonderful adventure, filled with opportunities to serve others where she can. “We had some wonderful adventures, and some that I wouldn’t want to repeat,” she said, embellishing with tales of “getting out of Ecuador after a volcano and riding in the back of a pickup truck with a group of men who didn’t speak English.”

Gant said her favorite vacation destination is southern Africa, because of its seclusion and primitive communication with the outside world.

“For two weeks we were totally out of contact with people. No radio, television, telephone or computers. You talk quietly because you bother the animals,” she said, adding that the people of southern Africa also are a reason to love that location. “That’s why I love travel,” she said. “I’ve met so many wonderful people and I love people.”