Linda Yonke started working at New Trier High School in 2004, initially seeing the end in sight of her professional journey.
Then she met Henry “Hank” Bangser.
“He is the one who made me want to be a superintendent,” Yonke said. “I thought I would come there and finish my career as an assistant superintendent. Seeing him approach the job and what he brought to it made me want to try that position as well.”
Bangser, New Trier’s superintendent from 1990-2006, died March 12 in Rockville, MD of natural causes, according to his wife, Sara. He was two days shy of his 75th birthday.
He worked for nearly 50 years in education, leading school districts in three different parts of the country.
“He was a strong model for me on how to treat people and how to understand the institution and the community and respect them,” added Yonke, who succeeded Bangser and went on to serve as New Trier’s superintendent until 2017. “But not to be afraid to try something new either.”
Born in New York City and raised in Larchmont, NY, Bangser worked as a camp counselor in New Hampshire. That experience created an interest in education that he had for the rest of his career, Sara Bangser noted.
In 1970, Bangser enrolled at Northwestern University soon to receive a Master’s Degree and later a PhD in educational leadership.
Bangser was hired in 1971 at New Trier East High School at a time when the district had two four-year high schools. He taught social studies as the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal dominated the national news.
In 1976, he was promoted to the New Trier East assistant principal. Three years later, he was hired as the principal of Lake Forest High School’s east campus. His arrival in Lake Forest coincided with the local filming of Robert Redford’s Academy Award-winning film, Ordinary People.
His family recalled crews set up in his office to film scenes and famed composer Marvin Hamlisch could be seen at a school piano.
“It was pretty cool,” Sara Bangser remembered. “It was a wonderful beginning to his administrative career.”
After four years in Lake Forest, Bangser moved back east becoming superintendent of a school district in Pelham, NY. In 1987, he returned to the Chicago area, hired as superintendent in St. Charles District 303.
He was always interested in returning to where he started his career in education.
“Hank had a long term plan that his desire was to eventually get back to New Trier,” Sara Bangser said. “It was the jewel in the crown and he was extremely impressed and endeared to the school and fulfilled with the quality of every aspect of that institution.”
Bangser’s hopes of returning to New Trier became a reality in 1990 upon the retirement of the previous superintendent when the New Trier School Board selected him to be the new academic leader.
A main highlight of Bangser’s run at New Trier was a shift in where children went to school.
In the early 1980s, amid a dwindling student population, New Trier initially shifted the Northfield campus to freshmen only and then stopped classes there altogether by 1985.
By the late 1990s, the student population was once again increasing and after several years of consideration, school officials opted to re-open the Northfield campus to freshmen only in 2001. That format continues to this day.
“Hank was really critical in assuring people that this was still going to be the New Trier we all valued in the district,” noted former District 203 Board President Onnie Scheyer.
Another challenging moment for Bangser occurred on 9/11 as many students were shaken up by the terrorist attacks.
“He was making sure there was a community of caring adults trying to deal with something that even adults were having trouble dealing with,” Sara Bangser said.
Upon his retirement from New Trier in 2006, the Northfield campus administration building was named for Bangser.
After retiring from New Trier, Bangser initially led a local education executive search firm and then returned to school administration becoming the superintendent in school districts in California.
Henry and Sara Bangser moved to Maryland in 2021 to be closer to family.
Bangser was a big sports fan who served as an assistant coach for the New Trier East football team in the 1970s. His other big passion was golf where he had a single digit handicap and would record the major golf tournaments so that he could watch his favorite moments more than once.
The Bangsers had three children and the golf course was a special place to their son, Marc, a Libertyville resident.
“We were best friends until the day he passed,” Marc Bangser said. “We played thousands of rounds together and it gave us the opportunity to bond over all things sports related.”
Their daughter, Jill Fioravanti of Chevy Chase, MD spoke of an attentive father and a doting grandfather.
“He was very proud of all of us,” Fioravanti said. “He was really interested in wanting us the best we can be in whatever we cared about and were interested in.”
She added he took particular interest in their writing assignments and would comment on school papers with a red pen.
“That was really the teacher in him coming out,” she said.
A third child, Matt Bangser lives in New Canaan, CT. Other survivors include seven grandchildren.
Services have been held.
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter with Pioneer Press.