After 25 years of helping hundreds of Upper School students, teaching multiple health classes, and working with the Parker community, Upper School Counselor Gary Childrey is retiring from Parker. 

Childrey grew up on the south side of Chicago and attended high school at a boarding school in Wisconsin. He then went to Stanford and majored in religious studies and philosophy. After Stanford, he took three years off and moved back to Wisconsin, where he took numerous psychology courses in Madison. He also worked in a daycare center and a center for runaway kids. Childrey went to graduate school at Boston University where he studied adolescent and community psychology. After five years total in Boston, he earned his Ph.D. 

After meeting his wife, he moved back to Chicago and taught at DePaul University for 10 years, working with graduate students on the journey to become a therapist as well as working with therapy in the community. Many of the graduate students he taught were coming from Parker, so he decided to apply for a job at Parker and came in for an interview. 

Childrey started the Bridge program for new students coming into Parker. He also created programming for numerous grade rooms addressing mental health and other topics related to high school life and health. 

“I’ve learned a lot here at Parker,” Childrey said. “I’ve grown up here at Parker professionally. Twenty five years is a lot of time. I am a much different person. Parker has been a good place for me to grow, for me to mature, for me to be patient with myself. Parker has been a very supportive place and it can be a supportive place for students as well as faculty to grow. Parker has been a really good place for me. It’s really shaped my life.”

Childrey has helped hundreds of high school students who are grateful for his help. JP Lazar, a former student in Childrey’s ninth grade health class, admires his style of teaching and his personality. He said, “What I admire about Dr. Childrey is that he is very open, very willing to talk to anybody, and willing to listen to anybody’s opinions and feelings.” Through health class, he has really reached out and connected to me, and I have had this relationship with him through talking to him in the class, that has really helped my high school career.”

Childrey has a passion for helping students. “I like working with students,” he said. “I like people who are trying to learn. High school was tough for me. People picked on me from time to time. I was an outsider. I wanted to make it better for other kids. There were people who helped me when I was in high school, and I wanted to return the favor.” 

Winnie Kearns, a current Upper School counselor, has worked with Childrey for over 25 years and even before he came to Parker. “I knew Dr. Childrey as a colleague at DePaul Family and Community Services before he came to Parker, so I knew him back 25 years ago. As a professional colleague, I really admired him at the time and he was doing some great work doing community-based mental health at the time.”

After Kearn’s many years working with Childrey, she believes they have built a great friendship and have made a great working partnership in mental health at Parker. “I really admire him in so many ways,” she said. “I think he is a really excellent clinician in that when he meets with someone or gets involved with a student or family, he has a really well-developed way of thinking of what’s going on and how to construct support to really address what’s going on. He thinks about situations in a very holistic way. He always thinks really holistically about the students and the families he is working with.” 

As Childrey won’t have the chance to instruct the incoming high schoolers, he has a message for the students who struggle with feelings and stress in high school. “Talk to people about your problems,” he said. “Meet a counselor or an advisor or a mentor. Do not suffer alone. Do not worry alone. Do not hide problems from trusted people because that is the only way you are going to get better.”