Eugene Propes’ low-key manner belied his forward thinking policies for educating youngsters during his years as a principal at junior high and high schools in Crete and Wheaton.
“He was responsible for implementing the first special education classes at the junior high school level, the first gifted programs inside the junior high and the first environmental sciences program,” said former Wheaton Warrenville South High School Principal Charles T. Baker, who worked with Propes at Edison Junior High School in Wheaton and later at Wheaton Central High School.
Propes, 93, died Feb. 15 at his home in Granbury, Texas, Baker said. A former resident of Wheaton and then of Lexington, Kentucky, Propes had been diagnosed with lymphoma.
Born and raised in Granite City, Illinois, Propes received bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Southern Illinois University. From 1951 until 1955, he served in the Navy. He was awarded a citation for courage and meritorious service after an explosion in the USS Leyte aircraft carrier’s port catapult machinery room while it was stationed in the South Boston Naval Annex, his family said. The explosion and fire claimed the lives of 37 people.
In 1965, he was named principal of the now-shuttered Hubbard Trail Junior High School in Crete, a community that was rapidly growing. The building had opened just two years earlier. Three years later he became assistant principal of Edison Junior High School in Wheaton, where he was promoted to principal a year later.
Propes pushed for the expansion of the junior high school’s educational options, and special education and gifted programs were added. He also encouraged writing to be taught in the school’s English curriculum, and he supported a five-day offsite “outdoor education” program for eighth graders, with a curriculum designed by the school’s teachers.
Propes also was instrumental in creating girls’ athletics programs at the junior high, Baker said.
“He insisted that there should be girls’ sports,” Baker said.
“He was sometimes viewed as kind of the man from Granite City, Illinois, but there was an understanding there of what was needed for the welfare of kids, from all of us who worked for him,” Baker said. “And I carried that with me — we exist for one purpose, and that’s to serve kids, and I learned that from Gene.”
Former Wheaton Warrenville Community Unit District 200 board member Ken Knicker, who was hired by Propes in 1970 and taught at Edison for seven years, praised Propes’ “knack for hiring people who could work together and really understood the nature of public education.” He also recalled Propes’ support for innovative teaching methods, including encouraging an eighth grade history curriculum that had the suburban youngsters taking the train to downtown Chicago and then riding the ‘L” to explore urban culture.
“He was a very firm principal to work for — he expected a lot out of you, but he was able to compliment you when you were doing a good job, and correct you when you needed a little bit of help,” Knicker said.
Proples helped oversee the transition of District 200’s junior high schools to middle schools in 1983. As part of that change, Propes became principal at Wheaton Central High School, a post he held for the next five years.
“He was a guy with all the energy in the world,” said Frank Stout, a former Wheaton Central dean who later was principal and then superintendent in Argo Community High School District 217. “And he was the kind of guy you’d jump in the foxhole with anytime. He just loved the kids, he loved the town of Wheaton and he had so much pride in the school.”
Stout recalled that some high schools ask administrators to rotate in attending student activities during their off-hours. When Propes offered Stout a job at Wheaton Central, Stout said, Propes relayed a different perspective.
“He said, ‘We do it real easy here.’ He said, ‘Everybody goes to everything,’” Stout said with a laugh. “He was a great administrator to learn from — he was just such a good leader and had a hard work ethic. Everything he did was for the students. And he was certainly a good role model for young administrators.”
After retiring from Wheaton Central in 1988, Propes moved to Kentucky and later to Texas, where he served Meals on Wheels and volunteered in a church food pantry.
Propes’ wife of 64 years, Bess, died in 2017. He is survived by three daughters, Pat Buikema, Mary Slack and Margaret Chilicki; six grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will take place March 29 in Granbury, Texas.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
