HR0408 96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HR0408 LRB096 12918 KXB 26821 r

HOUSE RESOLUTION

WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are saddened to learn of the death of Ben Meeker, former Chief Probation Officer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois and global consultant on criminal justice issues, on March 8, 2009; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker received an A.B. degree from the College of Emporia in Kansas and later used the insurance proceeds from the loss of his car in a flash flood to help pay for his master's degree from the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker served in the Navy during World War II; after returning home, he took a faculty position at Indiana University where he taught courses in probation and corrections, including prison management; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker left Indiana University to take the position of Chief Probation Officer of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois where he worked for the next 23 years; while serving in this position, Mr. Meeker collaborated with members of the University of Chicago's Law School and School of Social Service Administration to establish a training program for probation officers; for the next 20 years he directed the Federal Probation Training Center preparing U.S. probation officers from throughout the nation; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker understood that the federal probation system is an arm of the courts, not part of the prosecution; he knew that the mission of a probation officer is to help people change and protect society if people do not change; he believed that if a probation officer treats a person as he could be, he will become what he should be; he demanded professionalism and insisted on master's degrees, mostly in social work, for the probation officers in his charge; and

WHEREAS, In 1954, following the enactment of the first adult probation and parole law in the German Federal Republic, Mr. Meeker was invited by the German Ministry of Justice to assist in setting up a modern probation system; after a three and a half month stay that took him to more than 30 cities throughout Germany, Mr. Meeker returned home to declare that, "Western civilization is the cradle of probation"; and

WHEREAS, In 1953 and again in 1972, Mr. Meeker was invited to serve as a consultant on probation training to the Commonwealth Courts of Puerto Rico; in 1966 he received a Fulbright Award to conduct a series of training institutes and conferences on probation methods in the major cities of Japan; he has been honored by the 1963 John Howard Association Award, the 1964 Doyle Award of the Federal Probation Officers Association, a group that in 1995 named a scholarship in his honor, and the 1967 Halpern Award of the National Council on Crime and Delinquency; and

WHEREAS, After retiring from the U.S. District Court in 1973, Mr. Meeker joined the University of Chicago Law School Center for Studies in Criminal Justice; he also served as Adjunct Professor in the Department of Social Justice at the University of Illinois Circle Campus; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Meeker's innovative use of ex-offenders as paraprofessionals has contributed to the improvement of Federal supervision of parolees; he has contributed to the methodological development of social work as an academic study through his published works and cooperation with institutions educating social workers; and

WHEREAS, The passing of Mr. Meeker will be deeply felt by his wife, Mila; his son John; his daughter Virginia; his sister, Mary Wilson; and his three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren; therefore, be it

RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE NINETY-SIXTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with his family, friends, and the many people whose lives were touched by him, the passing of Ben Meeker; and be it further

RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Ben Meeker as a symbol of our sincere sympathy.