Dagmar Edith McGill, retired national leader for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America and Girls Scouts of the USA, has died at 91
She spent six decades improving the lives of children and mentoring colleagues in Philadelphia and around the world. “Her legacy of service and love for her community, the arts, and nature will live on in the programs she impacted,” her family said.
Dagmar Edith McGill, 91, of Philadelphia, retired international director and national deputy director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, former senior program specialist for Girl Scouts of the USA, onetime executive director of what became Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania, mentor, and volunteer, died Saturday, May 11, of age-associated complications at her home in Spring Garden.
Born in Charleston, W.Va., and reared in Wichita, Kan., Ms. McGill moved from New York to the Spring Garden neighborhood of Philadelphia in the early 1970s to become executive director of the Philadelphia-area Girl Scouts. She joined what became Big Brothers Big Sisters of Philadelphia in 1974, was promoted to deputy national director, and went on to establish the international office and serve as its director in 1998.
Ms. McGill was a lifelong social activist who tackled poverty, literacy, and other issues around the world, focusing always on girls and women. Her mother was a social worker in Kansas in the 1940s, and Ms. McGill, as a 10-year-old, organized a local support group of children during World War II.
Later, her national agenda for the Girl Scouts included innovative after-school programs and career-counseling workshops. By 2001, she had helped Big Brothers Big Sisters kick-start social improvement initiatives in every state and more than 30 countries.
To local girls in Philadelphia, Ms. McGill was an inspiring “big sister” for decades. She was a mentor to colleagues at every stop around the world and told The Inquirer in 2001. “This is not what I do. This is who I am.”
She was also vice president of the local chapter of the American Association of University Women and a member of the 1995 Carnegie Corp. Council on Adolescent Development, and the 1996 United Way of America task force on program impact. She spoke at conferences, seminars, and workshops, and was active with the United Nations, International Women’s Forum, Alice Paul Institute, and American Camp Association.
In Philadelphia, she was a member of the mayor’s literacy commission in 1983 and cofounded and served as board president of the Girls’ Coalition of Southeastern Pennsylvania. “We must all share in the development and nurturing of our children,” she told the Salt Lake Tribune in 1994.
Earlier, she was a district adviser and served in other roles with the Girl Scouts in Wichita and Detroit. She moved to New York in 1961 to become senior program specialist at the Girl Scouts national headquarters.
“She was driven in her work,” said her niece Carrie Lea McGill. “She had a vision in mind, and she pursued it. We wanted to be like our Dagmar.” Longtime friend and colleague Vanessa Oruska said: “She inspired me so much. Her goal in life was service.”
Dagmar Edith McGill was born Sept. 15, 1932. Her family moved to Wichita when she was 10, and she returned often later to visit family and friends in Kansas.
She joined the Chi Omega sorority and earned a bachelor’s degree in social work at Washington University in St. Louis in 1954 and a master’s degree in social work later at New York University. She played tennis and skied, and worked closely for years in Philadelphia with fellow activist Helen Faust.
She was an avid birder who had her own backyard certified as a protected habitat. She had cats, too, valued all animals, and complained in a letter to the editor of Today magazine in 1974 about a story she said glamorized the killing of minks for clothing.
She went to concerts and museums, and hosted friends often for lunch and lively conversation. She enjoyed beaches in South Jersey and Florida, and, thanks mostly to her father, could fix almost anything around the house. Everyone said she always said exactly what she thought.
“She put her everything into everything,” said her niece Tracy McGill Bouvier. “She loved everything about life.”
In addition to her nieces, Ms. McGill is survived by other relatives. A brother died earlier.
She requested that no services be held.
Donations in her name may be made to Big Brothers Big Sisters, 2502 N. Rocky Point Dr., Suite 100, Tampa, Fla. 33607; and Girl Scouts of the USA, Office of Philanthropy, Box 5046, New York, N.Y. 10087.