Avon Lake's Ellen Trivanovich Aquatic Center Celebrates 10 Years

By Claire Bettinger, special to the Avon Lake Public Library

Avon Lake residents have enjoyed spending their summer days at the Ellen Trivanovich Aquatic Center since its grand opening in 2010. This past June 25 marked a decade since our neighbors have enjoyed swimming at this modern water park. These happy afternoons would not have been possible without Ellen Trivanovich herself, who advocated for a municipal pool for 10 years before the original Avon Lake pool opened in 1962.

Born in Brimfield, MA, in 1915 to Yugoslavian immigrants Louis and Eva Trivanovich, “Miss Ellen,” as her students affectionately called her, was the oldest of seven children. Soon after her birth, the family moved to Pennsylvania, where five of her siblings were born, before the family settled in Avon Lake in 1927.

A lifelong athlete, Trivanovich was first noticed for her athleticism as the president of the Junior Girls Sports Club at Avon Lake Junior High School. Besides her obvious passion for swimming, Trivanovich excelled in basketball. When she graduated from high school in 1934, Trivanovich became the first woman from Avon Lake to receive an athletic scholarship to play college basketball at Kent State University. Instead of accepting the scholarship, she chose to work as a lifeguard in the recreational department of the Works Progress Administration, a New Deal agency, at Lakeview and Century parks in Lorain, OH.

Trivanovich then took her skills to the Lorain YMCA as a supervisor of swimming programs in 1939, but by the following year, she worked at the Avon Lake Park (now the Veterans Memorial Park). During World War II, Trivanovich served in the Women’s Army Corps at the American Ship Building Company with her sisters.

Trivanovich’s services to her community only increased throughout the years. After the war, she became Avon Lake’s first female police officer, a position she held for five years. In addition to her lifeguard and swimming instructor duties, Trivanovich was a school bus driver for Avon Lake schools beginning in 1954, when Superintendent J. Irving King asked for her help.

In the early 1950s, Trivanovich spearheaded Avon Lake’s first swimming program at the city park. Around this time, she also began advocating for a city pool where she could provide swimming lessons. Her efforts took 10 years, but finally, in 1962 the Avon Lake pool opened, where it was an instant success (One of the first high dives performed at the original pool is pictured above). Trivanovich became the pool manager and brought her swimming lessons to the new pool. She pioneered Avon Lake’s first competitive swimming program there, and because of her efforts, many student athletes have gone on to swim at the collegiate level.

Trivanovich’s consistent dedication to her community was recognized by the American Red Cross through several awards. Certified as an American Red Cross volunteer in water safety instruction and first aid, she was presented with a 40-year award as a Red Cross Water Safety Instructor in 1978. Her service for the Red Cross goes back further, as she was a former chairwoman of the Lorain County Chapter’s Water Safety Committee. The Red Cross also nominated Trivanovich for the Senior Adult Community Service Award, which she won in 1989.

In 1985, fifty-one years after her graduation from Avon Lake High School, Trivanovich became the first woman athlete to be inducted into the Avon Lake Sports Hall of Fame. Seven years later, the city pool she was so instrumental in developing was renamed the Ellen Trivanovich Municipal Pool. When she died in 1996, Trivanovich had taught thousands of people, children and adults alike, how to swim over the course of more than 60 years.

Susan Por, one of Trivanovich's former students, said, "What a great role model she was! I had her for lifesaving and also [as a] bus driver. She was terrific. I almost drowned, but I learned how to get out of that hold in lifesaving!”

One of Trivanovich's friends, Ruth Higgins, remembered, "She was a sergeant if there ever was one. The pool was never ever the same after Miss Ellen was gone. [When she was there], the pool was clean, it was always just perfect. No food was allowed, only at the concession stand. There were things about Miss Ellen that were very special. She really kept things very perfect."

As the aquatic center celebrates a decade of summertime fun for Avon Lake residents this year, the community has "Miss Ellen" to thank for her enduring legacy. (NOTE: Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ellen Trivanovich Aquatic Center will not be open this summer.)

For more information about Avon Lake's local history, visit Avon Lake Public Library's local history resources or Avon Lake Historical Society at heritageavonlake.org.