HR0958 94TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0958 LRB094 19461 HSS 56416 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the State of Illinois learned with sadness of the death of G. Alfred Hess Jr. on Friday, January 27, 2006; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Hess was a respected researcher and author, a school budget watchdog, an anthropologist, a devoted family man, and an ordained Methodist minister who marched for social justice with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; he was one of the architects of the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, and much of his research was used to champion the cause of the city's poorest children, students that he showed were not being properly served; and

WHEREAS, He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 26, 1938, to Frances and G. Alfred Hess Sr.; he had planned to be an engineer and had a reserved slot at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland; instead, he studied philosophy at the College of Wooster in Ohio, graduating in 1959; he graduated from the Boston University School of Theology in 1962; and

WHEREAS, He first moved to Chicago to work for what became the Institute of Cultural Affairs, through which he traveled the world working on community development projects; he received a doctorate in education at Northwestern University in 1980 and quickly made an impact on Chicago's educational landscape through his research, research that helped fuel Chicago's school reform movement; and

WHEREAS, In the early 1980s, he became head of the Chicago Panel on Public School Policy and Finance, an independent watchdog group made up of the city's top civic organizations; his research contributed to the transfer of about $260 million in Chapter I funds from the central office to the schools, where principals and local school councils could decide how the money would be spent; he also clarified data on the dropout rate in the Chicago Public Schools, showing it was much higher than thought, that funding was inequitable to poor students, and that teaching in some of the city's high schools was woefully inadequate; and

WHEREAS, Dr. Hess helped form the Consortium on Chicago Public School Research and went back to Northwestern University in 1996, where he was a research professor in the School of Education and Social Policy and director of the Center for Urban School Policy; while at Northwestern, he directed several major evaluation projects for the Chicago Public Schools and between 2000 and 2004, he coordinated The Lighthouse Partnership, the University's collaboration with Evanston School District 65; and

WHEREAS, He is a past president of the Council on Anthropology and Education and served on the national boards of the American Anthropological Association and the American Education Finance Association; he has written two books on Chicago school reform, including "Restructuring Urban Schools: A Chicago Perspective", and edited two others on school reform in general; and

WHEREAS, When he retired in December 2005, the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern instituted the G. Alfred Hess Jr. Undergraduate Research Fund to support undergraduate research fellows; the fund honors his service to the School and his generosity in mentoring students; and

WHEREAS, The passing of Dr. Hess has been deeply felt by many, especially his wife, Mary Hess; his daughter, Sarah Hess; his son, Randall Hess; his sisters, Lou Hardwick, Betty Hess, Jane Clark, Bobbie Gibbs and Dottie Ambler; and his grandchildren, Ethan and Maia Hess; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of G. Alfred Hess Jr., and we extend our deepest sympathy to his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to his family as an expression of our sincerest condolences.