Celebrating Nillumbik Women 2009 - Nillumbik Shire Council

Francesca (Fran) Gronow
Nominated by Mandy Press
Born November 1939, at the Sunshine
Community Hospital to Eva Ellna, who
migrated to Australia in 1925 from Fruili, Italy
and father Antonio Vargiu from Sardinia; the
family had a market garden in Keilor.
Fran went to school in Sunshine and
graduated from Sunshine Tech at 15 with
a secretarial qualification. Her art teacher
had arranged for her to work at the National
Gallery of Victoria (NGV) as the secretary
to the Assistant Director. Despite her initial
trepidation, Fran soon settled in and thrived
there. She was a naive 15-year-old who
learned a lot very quickly. Over the six years
at NGV, she worked for many of the big
names in the art world, Sir Daryl Lindsay,
Eric Westbrook, Brian Finemore, and Alan
Sumner. The most memorable person for
Fran was Dr Ursula Hoff, the distinguished
art historian and curator.
Fran married Kevin Gronow at 20. Kevin
was an accountant at the NGV and shared
her love of the arts. Her first son, Michael,
was born in 1962, and in 1963, the family
moved to a newly built three bedroom house
in Research. Russell was born in 1964. After
Emma was born in 1971, Kevin left and
Fran raised the three children on her own.
For over 30 years, Fran has worked in
lots of different jobs outside the home to
support her children, initially in low skilled
areas because of their flexible hours. After
training as a library technician in 1984,
she worked in a number of local school
libraries. Fran still made time to participate
and support every aspect of her children’s
lives - Brownies, Scouts, Eltham Swimming
Club, coaching the school netball team,
reading, electives and volunteering in the
library. Family, school and community were
interconnected for Fran.
Fran ‘retired’ in 2003 and her life became
busier than ever. She describes it as ‘the
time when her life started’. As well as
giving Fran the opportunity to pursue her
own interests, retirement has provided her
with the time to engage in thousands of
spontaneous acts of generosity because
that’s what she likes to do. The list of her
contributions as a volunteer is too long to
include here - Fran is always there when
help is needed. She has been unstinting in
her support of the women’s network and the
Nillumbik Say no to Violence project. She
still helps out in libraries wherever she can,
even establishing a lending library in one of
the bushfire relief centres. Her daily joy is
staffing the crossing as Research’s ‘lollypop’
lady. The children love her as she always
finds ways to lift their spirits.