Jill grew up in Campbellford, left CHS after Grade 12 in 1961 and graduated from Ontario Ladies College the next year. From there, she attended Peterborough Teacher’s College, taught in Toronto, lived in England and Holland and ended up in Trenton, as a Special Education Consultant.
She became interested in Organizational Development and began a new Toronto career in management of several Ontario not for profit organizations including the Multiple Sclerosis Society and Ontario Learning Disabilities. Later, she started a new career in executive recruitment as Director of Research in Toronto for Korn Ferry International and then running her own Research business. In 1996, she became a real estate agent and then a real estate broker and am still enjoying a 25-year long career in this business.
In 1988, she married Herb Koplowitz, a management consultant. They live in Campbellford as well as Toronto. From an earlier marriage we have two children: Melissa Smeets, now a real estate agent in Campbellford (and also a Sponsor) and Jason Smeets, a cab driver in Peterborough. Both have attended CDHS. From Herb’s first marriage (I’m his third AND FINAL wife [I can say this with confidence after 31 years]) we have Jesse Koplowitz, a high school math teacher, who lives in Washington. We have three grandchildren, one in Peterborough and two in Washington D.C.
We love to travel. We honeymooned in Nepal, where Herb had been a Peace Corps Volunteer and when Herb’s work takes him abroad, we use that as an opportunity to travel. In 2008, Herb’s work took us to Moscow for five months. Our latest adventure started in January 2020 when his work took us to Jakarta, giving us an excuse for a five-week trip in SE Asia including a cruise that ended in Singapore in mid-February.
