[Dialogue] Fred Hess Dies

[Priscilla Wilson]

My sharpest memory of Fred Hess is of a moment when he taught me what  
it meant to be a teacher. I
n the mid-to-late 60s...we were teaching a weekday class on the south  
side of Chicago...in some church, I think. I don't even remember what  
course...it wasn't RS-1.
We were driving to the south side and I'm worrying about my teaching  
assignment. I am to teach a seminar on someone's (don't remember who)  
seminal writing. Our assignment was to have one of the class  
participants put his or her chart of the paper on the chalk board  
(ancient history when you had chalk boards).
During the drive, I asked Fred if I could just put my chart on the  
board...instead of ask one of the participants to do it. You probably  
have guessed what his answer was. After a moment of thoughtful  
silence he said, "Yes, that will be ok...that is if you don't want  
the participants to learn."
I will never, ever forget those words. I've tried to always put the  
participant first since then. I'm sure I haven't always succeeded.
We need more shining lights in education like Fred.
Priscilla Wilson

On Jan 30, 2006, at 5:02 PM, Lucia Ann McSpadden wrote:

> Fred was one of the people who drew me into E.I. and inspired me with
> his integrity and wisdom.  Later I met him at Anthropology meetings
> where we had energizing and disturbing conversations about  
> education of
> poor children.  I will miss him and am blessed to have known him.
>
> Shan McSpadden
>
>
> Lucia Ann McSpadden, Ph.D.
> Coordinator of International Student Support
> Adjunct Faculty
> Pacific School of Religion
> 1798 Scenic Avenue
> Berkeley, CA  94709
> 1-510-849-8250
> 1-510-845-8948 [fax]
> lmcspadden at psr.edu
> check our website at www.psr.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net
> [mailto:Dialogue-bounces at wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Charles or Doris
> Hahn
> Sent: Monday, January 30, 2006 2:54 PM
> To: Dialogue
> Subject: [Dialogue] Fred Hess Dies
>
>> From Doris Hahn-
>
> This came to me via Pam Bergdall. Fred died of pancreatic cancer  
> Friday,
> January 27, one day after his 68th birthday. The following tribute was
> in the Chicago Tribune.
>
> G. Alfred Hess Jr.
> --------------------
>
> 1938-2006
>
> Educator challenged inequity of resources in Chicago schools
>
> By Jon Yates
> Tribune staff reporter
>
> January 30, 2006
>
> G. Alfred Hess Jr. was ordained as a Methodist minister but couldn't
> stop thinking he could help more people if he left his small
> congregation in Shelburne Falls, Mass.
>
> So Mr. Hess resigned from his church and moved his family to  
> Chicago in
> 1966. In the years that followed, he left an indelible imprint on the
> city's educational system.
>
> A social activist, devoted family man and skilled researcher, Mr. Hess
> directed the Chicago Panel on School Policy for 13 years and was  
> one of
> the architects of the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988. Much of his
> research was used to champion the cause of the city's poorest
> children--students who, he showed, were not being properly served.
>
> "I think he was really driven by a sense of social justice, that there
> was so much unfairness in society and that it was being pushed  
> under the
> rug," said John Ayers, a friend and colleague who is the former
> executive director of Leadership for Quality Education.
>
> Mr. Hess, 68, died of pancreatic cancer Friday, Jan.
> 27, in his Chicago
> home. He died one day after his birthday, with his wife and two  
> children
> at his side.
>
> "Every job he took, every project he worked on, was informed by that
> sense that he needed to help," said his son, Randy.
> "Even when he was
> doing things that were completely secular, he had that sense of the
> ministry. He wasn't proselytizing. He really thought his role was to
> help people."
>
> Mr. Hess, who was born in Trenton, N.J., graduated from the College of
> Wooster in Ohio in 1959, then Boston University School of Theology  
> three
> years later. He came 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 the city's educational landscape through
> his research.
>
> "He could take the driest stinking data in the world and say, `This is
> what it means,'" said his wife, Mary. "He found ways to turn data into
> action."
>
> His research showed the dropout rate in Chicago's schools was much
> higher than previously stated, that funding was inequitable to poor
> students and that teaching in some of the city's high schools was
> woefully inadequate.
>
> "He's one of the founding educators of the school reform movement  
> in the
> late 1980s. He and [others] not only sounded the alarm about the
> failures in the school system, but he was one of the architects of the
> reform movement," said Paul Vallas, former chief executive officer of
> the Chicago Public Schools. "He was a great researcher and was  
> probably
> one the nicest individuals I've ever met."
>
> Mr. Hess helped form the Consortium on Chicago Public School Research
> and went back to Northwestern to teach in 1996.
>
> His son said Mr. Hess was driven to help people but never missed his
> children's soccer games or ballet performances.
>
> "He was fun and gregarious," his son said. "He was smart so he could
> employ wit as well."
>
> Vallas said Mr. Hess' research helped guide his tenure at the Chicago
> Public Schools.
>
> "He was a very inspiring guy," Vallas said. "He'll achieve a certain
> immortality through his work."
>
> Besides his son and wife, survivors include his daughter, Sarah; and
> five sisters, Lou Hardwick, Jane Clark, Bobbie Gibbs, Dottie Ambler  
> and
> Betty. Services were pending.
>
>
>
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