February 1, 2006 | Faculty

Professor Fred Hess Dies at 68; Memorial Is Feb. 10

EVANSTON, Ill. --- G. Alfred (Fred) Hess Jr., 68, research professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, died of pancreatic cancer Jan. 27 in his home.

A memorial service will be held at10 a.m. Feb. 10 in Alice Millar Chapel on Northwestern’s Evanston campus, followed by a reception in Guild Lounge of Scott Hall.

Mr. Hess, who joined Northwestern in 1996, directed the Chicago Panel on School Policy for 13 years, became one of the architects of the Chicago School Reform Act of 1988. He directed several major evaluation projects for the Chicago Public Schools and between 2000 and 2004 coordinated The Lighthouse Partnership, the University's collaboration with Evanston School District 65.

At Northwestern, he was director of the Center for Urban School Policy and on the faculty of the Master of Science in Education program at the School of Education and Social Policy.

Mr. Hess is a former president of the Council on Anthropology and Education and served on the national boards of the American Anthropological Association and the American Education Finance Association. He wrote two books on Chicago school reform, including “Restructuring Urban Schools: A Chicago Perspective” (Teachers College Press, 1995), and edited two others on school reform across the country.

He graduated from the College of Wooster in Ohio in 1959 and the Boston University of Theology in 1962. He earned his doctoral degree from Northwestern in 1980.

Survivors include his wife Mary; son Randy; daughter Sarah; and three sisters, Bobby Gibbs, Dottie Ambler and Betty Hess

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, Bethpage, N.Y. 11714, or the G. Alfred Hess Jr. Undergraduate Research Fund at the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.