Skilled mediator and supporter of nonprofits
Gale A. McGloin had almost as many interests as she had talents.
An anthropologist, mediator, theater buff — and a maven of the nonprofit world — there wasn’t much she couldn’t conquer.
“She was the most alive person I ever met,” said Michelle Belan, of Morningside, who met Ms. McGloin in a writer’s workshop 30 years ago and worked alongside her at PICT, formerly known as Pittsburgh Irish & Classical Theatre, where Ms. McGloin served as director of development from 2008 to 2012. “Her interests were very drastically different. I think in a way it’s all related to a fascination with people — who they are and telling their own story. I think that’s been a cornerstone of her existence.”
Ms. McGloin also had the courage of her convictions — as a high school student she resigned from the National Honor Society when a deserving classmate was turned away.
In more recent years, she showed her support for the Black Lives Matter movement by silently standing in front of her building near the corner of Fifth Avenue and Neville Street in North Oakland, simply holding a sign. Before long, she was joined by others who followed her example.
“She couldn’t hide her principles. She really stood up for what she believed in and she couldn’t pretend otherwise,”Ms. Belan recalled.
A Buffalo, N.Y., native who adopted Pittsburgh as her hometown after coming here as a University of Pittsburgh student, Ms. McGloin died Feb. 3 of a suspected brain bleed. She was 70.
Her devotion to social activism originated with their mother, an inner-city school teacher in Buffalo, said her sister Sharon McGloin, of Kansas City, Mo.
“Throughouther life she’s always been for the underdog,” she said. “She always felt compelled to stand up and speak.”
“After George Floyd, she just felt she had to do something to make a difference,” said Brenda Smith, a friend and retired executive director of UpstreamPgh, a nonprofit green stormwater management agency where Ms. McGloin served as a consultant.
After earning a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Buffalo, Ms. McGloin came to Pitt for a graduate degree.
“She came to Pittsburgh to study and just never left,” her sister said. “She really fell in love with Pittsburgh.”
Ms. McGloin never married after losing her partner, John Creighton, to a heart valve failure when he was just 30 years old.
“He was the love of her life,” Ms. Belan said. “She really never found anybody to replace him.”
In 1986, Ms. McGloin was selected by The Pittsburgh Press as one of the “16 Women Who Make a Difference,” for her efforts in broadening the scope and size of the Oakland Women’s Center, where she was executive director from 1983 to 1987.
She was credited with increasing the membership and reach of the center from a small, Pitt-based agency into one that served the needs of women throughout the city in matters related to career advice, personal development and other resources.
Ms. McGloin would continue her career in nonprofit groups, directing the Mon Valley Provider Council Project from 1987 through 1989, and the Citizens League of Southwestern Pennsylvaniafrom 1990 to 1993.
She came to the Pittsburgh Mediation Center in 1995 as executive director and expanded its mission to include partnerships with Pittsburgh Public Schools and the court system, helping to develop juvenile and restorative justice programs.
Her work there also included efforts to integrate mediation into places where disputes often land, such as housing court, the district justice system and local high schools, where Ms. McGloin helped teens to establish a peer mediation program.
The effort proved a success in an environment where, well, parents just don’t understand.
“If the adults think they can solve all the problems, they’re wrong,” Ms. McGloin told the Post-Gazette in 2001. “Because (teens are) close in age, they can relate to the problems. Adults don’t get it. Other kids appreciate the enormity of the problems.”
She stayed at the PMC until 2007, but Ms. McGloin’s skills in conflict resolution came in use throughout her life, including in 2011, when she helped Oakland develop its first master plan in decades by mediating planning discussions.
By 2013, Ms. McGloin started her own nonprofit and fundraising consulting firm, bringing the skills she gleaned over many years in the local nonprofit ecosystem to bear for environmental and theater groups.
“She was one of the most alert and engaged people I ever met,” said Steve O’Hearn, co-artistic director and co-founder of Squonk Opera. “In 2015 she joined the board and within a year or so we asked her to become our president.”
“Her enthusiasm was completely contagious,” Ms. Belanrecalled. “She was very much into the nonprofit scene and the importance of art in the lives of people in general, especially children. Kindness, compassion and justice — those messages often conveyed in art really matter and that was just reallyimportant to her.”
Ms. McGloin’s donor cultivation and organizational acumen became a major asset to several organizations.
“Her skills were off the chart — there was no chance of us ever missing a deadline,” said Ms. Smith of UpstreamPgh. “She helped us develop new funding sources, she secured a series of many grants and moved the organization’s efforts in a greener direction, making us a leader in green stormwater management. Her knowledge of the foundation community was both broad and deep.”
She was also a budding writer and playwright, working on a novel based in Erie.
Andrew Paul, founder and producing artistic director of Kinetic Theatre Co., said the loss of Ms. McGloin has been heartbreaking for those who knew her.
“She was a calm, rational presence in my life and always offered sound advice,” he said. “Gale will be greatly missed.”
Along with her sister, Ms. McGloin is survived by her brothers, Michael McGloin and John Straubinger, both of Buffalo.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to one of the organizations that Ms. McGloin actively supported: UpstreamPgh, Squonk Opera, and Kinetic Theatre.
A celebration of her life is planned for noon to 3 p.m. April 20 at the Friends Meeting House, 4836 Ellsworth Ave.,in North Oakland.
Those interested in attending should send an email to FriendsofGale2024@