Glenn Heck was a teacher and administrator at National Louis University and its predecessor, the National College of Education who focused on curriculum that helped the school expand to multiple campuses in the U.S. and abroad.
“(National Louis) grew by leaps and bounds because of the degree completion programs that he instigated, where students could come to school one night a week and get their master’s degree,” said Del Stoner, National Louis’ former senior vice president for finance. “That’s what made the school grow so rapidly.”
Heck, 98, died of natural causes April 6 at the Covenant Living at Windsor Park assisted living facility in Carol Stream, said his son Paul. He had been a longtime Carol Stream resident.
Born Glenn Earl Heck in the tiny community of Bardolph in west central Illinois, Heck served in the Army during World War II as a medical supply sergeant, stationed in Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands.
After the war, Heck attended Knox College in Galesburg for about a year before transferring to Wheaton College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in 1951.
He was a junior high school teacher and principal in Wheaton, then rose within the west suburb’s school administration, becoming an assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
Attending classes part time, Heck picked up a master’s degree in education from Northwestern University in 1955 and later began working on a doctorate in education from Michigan State University, which he received in 1973.
In 1967, Heck took a job at the National College of Education, then headquartered in Lombard. Over the next 33 years, he oversaw major expansions both of curricula and of buildings at the college, which changed its name to National Louis University in 1990. Heck first taught undergraduate students and graduate students and eventually became senior vice president for planning and academic affairs.
While working as an administrator, he continued teaching courses on education, his son said. He was also part of a concerted effort by National College of Education leaders to expand the school’s offerings and reach.
“We used to be a single-purpose institution, but in the 1970s we had to decide what to do,” Heck told the Tribune in 1984. “When we looked internally, we found that we had done a lot of work with the 23-to-55 age group through special education. So we developed programs geared toward working adults with limited time, energy and money.”
In trying to ascertain his college’s position in the marketplace, Heck cited his own educational journey as an adult learner.
“I’m a typical example of an adult who’s taken his time to get an education,” he told the Tribune in 1984. “I’m convinced that education works best when formal education is tied to the work experience. And schools are starting to realize that education doesn’t work if it’s not linked with reality.”
During his tenure, the school had facilities in Chicago, Lombard and Evanston, as well as in St. Louis, Milwaukee, Virginia, Atlanta, Tampa, Germany and Poland. In 1992, the university moved from two cramped former elementary schools in Lombard into the newly purchased former DuPage County courthouse in Wheaton, and in 1994, the university opened a new campus in Wheeling.
After Heck retired in 2000, National Louis sold the old courthouse and relocated DuPage operations to an office complex in Lisle, and several years later moved from its Evanston campus to a new facility in Skokie.
“Glenn was the most visionary person I’ve ever known, able to add practicality to his great ideas,” said Ray Smith, a friend and neighbor who served with Heck on a nonprofit group’s board. “He gave you solutions.”
Heck was also on the board of the DuPage Heritage Gallery, which oversaw a museum exhibit of noted county natives that is displayed at the DuPage County administration building. Heck also served on the boards of Wheaton’s Center for History and of what now is known as Mission Eurasia, which equips Christian leaders to serve in Eurasia and Israel.
With Marshall Shelley, Heck coauthored a 1979 book, “What Every Sunday School Worker Should Know About How Children Learn,” which also is known as “How Children Learn.”
In addition to his son, Heck is survived by his wife, Virginia; another son, Scott; a daughter, Lynnaea Martin; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
