Oct. 20--Edward "Tim" Christie left the corporate world at age 45 to become a landscape designer, which allowed him to merge his professional life with his passion for gardening and the outdoors.
The career shift enabled him to do what many of his friends and colleagues believed to be his most important work: supporting his community in Lake Forest. Over the years Christie was on the Historic Preservation Commission, Building Review Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Plan Commission.
"He was on just about every board and commission that we have," Lake Forest Mayor Don Schoenheider said. "That itself is a pretty big testament to the commitment he had to the community.
"He was the consummate volunteer," Schoenheider said. "He was always willing to give of his time and talent and of himself for our community."
Christie, 70, died of complications with Parkinson's disease Sept. 27 at ManorCare Health Services Rehabilitation Center in Libertyville, said his brother, John.
Christie was born March 17, 1945, to Jack and Pauline Christie. He grew up in Lake Forest and graduated from Lake Forest High School in 1963.
"He grew up like all the kids did in that time," his brother said. "We lived in a neighborhood that had just a few houses and a lot of woods around it. It was in that environment that Tim got interested in plants and trees and gardens."
Christie graduated from Denison University in 1967 and took a job as a communications consultant with Hewitt Associates, now part of Aon Corp., his brother said.
"His strong suit at Hewitt was his ability to convert very technical descriptions of (pension and other employee benefit plans) into words that you and I could understand as beneficiaries of these plans," John Christie said.
In 1990, Christie left his corporate job to start a landscape and architecture company, The Private Garden.
"He had been working for Hewitt Associates and grew disenchanted with that environment," said Bruce Birney, a friend of Christie's since childhood. "He decided he was going to make a career out of what had been a hobby for him."
As a landscape architect, Christie worked for clients all along the North Shore, first under his own banner, and eventually for other landscapers including Rocco Fiore Sons and Wright Landscaping Inc. He also worked for several years in the late 1990s and early 2000s as an architectural/landscape consultant and property manager for Conway Farms and Middlefork Farms, two large real estate developments in Lake Forest.
Also in the early 2000s, Christie began volunteering at Lambs Farm, a community in Libertyville for adults with developmental disabilities.
Over nearly 15 years, Christie's pro bono contributions to Lambs Farm included the landscaping of nine group homes, the design of a memorial fountain garden, and the design and establishment of a tribute garden.
"He would find things that we needed to do and then find people to donate," said Dianne Yaconetti, president and CEO of Lambs Farm. "He would donate his landscape design services, which is often as much as the implementation of the plan."
Christie preferred native plants and a natural, rather than manicured, style, though he had a particular talent for putting his clients' needs and idiosyncrasies ahead of his own design sensibilities.
"You would find other landscape designers of his stature that would be annoyed if they couldn't do something as fancy as they wanted to do because it wouldn't work here," Yaconetti said. "He went out of his way to make sure that whatever he did was respectful of our residents."
Christie leaves no other immediate survivors.
A memorial service is scheduled for 10 a.m. Nov. 23 at First Presbyterian Church of Lake Forest.
Dole is a freelance reporter.
