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1
HOUSE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the House of Representatives of the
3 State of Illinois learned with sadness of the death of G.
4 Alfred Hess Jr. on Friday, January 27, 2006; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Dr. Hess was a respected researcher and author, a
6 school budget watchdog, an anthropologist, a devoted family
7 man, and an ordained Methodist minister who marched for social
8 justice with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.; he was one of the
9 architects of the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988, and much
10 of his research was used to champion the cause of the city's
11 poorest children, students that he showed were not being
12 properly served; and
 
13     WHEREAS, He was born in Trenton, New Jersey, on January 26,
14 1938, to Frances and G. Alfred Hess Sr.; he had planned to be
15 an engineer and had a reserved slot at the U.S. Naval Academy
16 in Annapolis, Maryland; instead, he studied philosophy at the
17 College of Wooster in Ohio, graduating in 1959; he graduated
18 from the Boston University School of Theology in 1962; and
 
19     WHEREAS, He first moved to Chicago to work for what became
20 the Institute of Cultural Affairs, through which he traveled
21 the world working on community development projects; he
22 received a doctorate in education at Northwestern University in
23 1980 and quickly made an impact on Chicago's educational
24 landscape through his research, research that helped fuel
25 Chicago's school reform movement; and
 
26     WHEREAS, In the early 1980s, he became head of the Chicago
27 Panel on Public School Policy and Finance, an independent
28 watchdog group made up of the city's top civic organizations;
29 his research contributed to the transfer of about $260 million
30 in Chapter I funds from the central office to the schools,
31 where principals and local school councils could decide how the

 

 

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1 money would be spent; he also clarified data on the dropout
2 rate in the Chicago Public Schools, showing it was much higher
3 than thought, that funding was inequitable to poor students,
4 and that teaching in some of the city's high schools was
5 woefully inadequate; and
 
6     WHEREAS, Dr. Hess helped form the Consortium on Chicago
7 Public School Research and went back to Northwestern University
8 in 1996, where he was a research professor in the School of
9 Education and Social Policy and director of the Center for
10 Urban School Policy; while at Northwestern, he directed several
11 major evaluation projects for the Chicago Public Schools and
12 between 2000 and 2004, he coordinated The Lighthouse
13 Partnership, the University's collaboration with Evanston
14 School District 65; and
 
15     WHEREAS, He is a past president of the Council on
16 Anthropology and Education and served on the national boards of
17 the American Anthropological Association and the American
18 Education Finance Association; he has written two books on
19 Chicago school reform, including "Restructuring Urban Schools:
20 A Chicago Perspective", and edited two others on school reform
21 in general; and
 
22     WHEREAS, When he retired in December 2005, the School of
23 Education and Social Policy at Northwestern instituted the G.
24 Alfred Hess Jr. Undergraduate Research Fund to support
25 undergraduate research fellows; the fund honors his service to
26 the School and his generosity in mentoring students; and
 
27     WHEREAS, The passing of Dr. Hess has been deeply felt by
28 many, especially his wife, Mary Hess; his daughter, Sarah Hess;
29 his son, Randall Hess; his sisters, Lou Hardwick, Betty Hess,
30 Jane Clark, Bobbie Gibbs and Dottie Ambler; and his
31 grandchildren, Ethan and Maia Hess; therefore, be it
 

 

 

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1     RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
2 NINETY-FOURTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that
3 we mourn the passing of G. Alfred Hess Jr., and we extend our
4 deepest sympathy to his family, friends, and all who knew and
5 loved him; and be it further
 
6     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
7 presented to his family as an expression of our sincerest
8 condolences.