$1.6M Donation For New Central Natatorium

HINSDALE, IL — A local group has raised $1.6 million to help pay for the ongoing construction of a new natatorium at Hinsdale Central High School.

The money was raised by Friends of the Don Watson Aquatic Center, which is largely made up of swim team alumni. The donation is set to be presented at Thursday's Hinsdale High School District 86 board meeting.

According to district records, the new facility will cost $22 million. The project began last spring and is scheduled for completion in June.

George Tidmarsh, a 1978 Hinsdale Central graduate who now lives in California, offered to match all contributions. This means he covered half of the $1.6 million donation, according to the Friends group.

The former Central swimmer is president of the Hinsdale Central Foundation and CEO of a pharmaceutical company. And he was a member of the late coach Don Watson's championship team. Tidmarsh is flying in for Thursday's meeting.

In an interview, Vince Allegra, a 1996 graduate and former swim team member, said that with Tidmarsh's contribution, the Friends group assigned members to contact former Central swimmers from different decades for donations.

"It was a phenomenal team effort, with members of the committee reaching out to 62 years of swim team alumni," Allegra said. "This project is something the high school has talked about for 20-plus years. This was our best and only shot to get this done. Everyone was excited to be a part of this."

Allegra said the $1.6 million may be the largest private donation to a public school in Illinois.

"Maybe we created a future business model for these types of projects," he said.

Watson died in 2017 at age 87. He coached five Olympic swimmers in the 1960s and 1970s at Hinsdale Central, according to Swimming World Magazine. The district has referred to Watson as "legendary."