The Southtown Star News

Pioneering race relations

Rich Central, Bloom Trail administrator eased tensions in changing Southland

When William McGee arrived at Rich Central High School in 1971, he expected tough times.

Tension was building at the Olympia Fields school over an influx of African-American students. The schools faced severe overcrowding, forcing students to attend classes in split shifts. Morale among teachers hit rock bottom. Believing they were treated unfairly, students staged walkouts in protest. Administrators felt they were at a loss for how to pull the school back together.

"The school was in turmoil," retired teacher Tom DePasquale recalls. "They were looking for an answer."

In stepped William McGee.

As a black man who came of age at the peak of the civil rights movement, McGee held no illusions about the challenges he faced in a community at odds over integration. He also knew the only way to establish authority in the historically white school would be to demand fairness.

"We don't care if you like one another, but you will respect everyone," McGee told a group of students during his early days at the high school, said Glen Hartweck, a former dean.

The anger, frustration and intolerance that prompted the Cook County education office to send McGee to the district as a mediator hadn't dissolved by the year's end. However, McGee had begun to build a reputation as a problem solver. After a few years, that reputation earned him a place in history as the first African-American high school principal in the south suburbs. He landed that job in 1980 at Bloom Trail High School in Chicago Heights.

Next month, educators, friends and family will gather to memorialize McGee, who died Nov. 30 because of complications brought on by kidney and heart failure. He was 80 years old.

Turnaround needed

McGee was hired as a full-time assistant principal at Rich Central in 1972. Although he didn't hold the top administrative post in the school, his leadership was evident in the issues he tackled. Within that first year, he managed to add textbooks to classes where students had grown accustomed to studying handouts instead. Athletic teams quickly were integrated. Students began showing steady academic improvement.

But those accomplishments didn't fall into place on their own, according to colleagues.

McGee took tough stances and set a tone of discipline in the school.

He barred seniors who'd skipped school before graduation day from collecting their diplomas on stage. And when there was an outcry because no African-American girls made the cut in cheerleading tryouts, McGee refused to force the coach to add them.

Instead, the school started a clinic to teach cheerleading. The next time around, some of the African-American girls earned spots on the squad. In making that stand, McGee also earned something - the respect of parents and teachers.

He went on to marry that cheerleading coach, Pat McGee, but the strained race relations in the area compelled them to keep their union a secret for nearly five years.

"It was not the point in time, when he was hired to fix black-white issues, to see us as a black-white pair," McGee's widow said.

The charismatic administrator was known for his style - he particularly favored a pink suit - and he didn't shy away from making connections with the people around him.

"There's no stopping you now," was one of things he'd often say when he stopped to watch the after-school dance practices, Rich Central alumna Joan Stevens said. Some of the students already knew McGee from the time he taught in "the Heights" in Ford Heights School District 169.

McGee's popularity helped him win over families reluctant to embrace school integration.

"He had a knack for charming the white people without being condescending to the blacks," said Georgia DePasquale, Tom's wife.

The opening of Rich South High School in Richton Park in fall 1973 also helped ease tensions.

The area's racial rift would take time to heal though, according to Stevens.

"You could still see a separation in the lunchroom where blacks sat with blacks and whites sat with whites," she said. "But when you dealt with Mr. McGee, you didn't say, 'Oh, there's our black vice principal.'

"He made students feel like they were somebody."

Driven to succeed

In 1980, McGee was hired as the principal at Bloom Trail - the first African-American to assume such a post in the Southland.

McGee's college pal, Ernest Davis, worked his way through the educational ranks alongside his friend. He saw the challenges McGee faced and how he dealt with them.

"It was a hard fight," Davis said. "It certainly set the tone that he was an educational leader regardless of color."

McGee's will to succeed was, perhaps, in his blood, Pat McGee said. Her late husband came from a long line of teachers, starting with his great-grandfather, an escaped slave who went on to open a small college for African-Americans in Texas. Eight of McGee's nine siblings graduated from college. The ninth, a brother, was killed during World War II.

McGee went to South Carolina State University on a basketball scholarship. After he graduated, he made the Harlem Globetrotters team but declined the spot because he wanted to make some money, Pat McGee said.

His lifelong ambition was to encourage others to follow in his family's footsteps - even as early as his first teaching job at a Chicago school primarily filled with Chinese immigrants.

"He made students feel like they were somebody," Davis said of his friend's unrelenting expectation that every student could succeed whatever his or her personal challenges might be.

"He knew the names of all the students," Davis said. "And he put an emphasis on academics for all of them."

Angela Caputo can be reached at acaputo@southtownstar.com or (708) 633-5993.

A Memorial for William McGee

A memorial service will take place at 2 p.m. Jan. 5 at Governors State University in University Park.

A memorial scholarship fund has been established in William McGee's name. Contributions can be sent to the Governors State University Foundation, c/o the William D. McGee Memorial Scholarship, 1 University Parkway, University Park, IL 60466

William McGee, 80 was a noted educator in greater Chicago for thirty-six years.  A retired superintendent of School District 170 in Chicago Heights, McGee died from the complications of kidney and heart failure at St. James Hospital on November 30, 2007.

He graduated from South Carolina State College, received a master's degree in education from Indiana University and completed the course requirements for the Ed. D. degree at the University of Illinois.

McGee served successively as teacher, principal, and superintendent in Chicago, East Chicago Heights, Chicago Heights, and Olympia Fields.

He first retired in 1988 but due to his valued problem solving skills, he was hired out of retirement as principal of Rich Central High School during a very tumultuous period for that school.

His last position was as Superintendent of Schools in Chicago Heights, from which he retired in 1996.

McGee received many honors including the Award of Recognition for Those Who Excel by the Illinois State Board of Education.  In addition, the Field House at Bloom Trail High School was named in his honor as was the University Hall of Honors at Governors State University.

He served on several Boards, including Prairie State Community College and Governors State University.

In recognition of his 80th Birthday in March, 2007, nearly a hundred family members and friends gathered to celebrate his life.  One theme in the commentary was the respect he had for the children and faculty in his charge.  He was dubbed a great mentor to many over several decades.

A talented basketball player in his youth and an avid golfer, McGee possessed a near encyclopedic knowledge of sports and jazz and loved to discuss both in great detail.  Watching sports and listening to music, especially that of his jazz musician son were of comfort to him in the final months of his life.

McGee and his wife had been married for 33 years.  The couple lived in Hazel Crest.

Mr. McGee is survived by

His Wife: Patricia McGee

Sibling: Mrs. Doris McGee Haynes

Children: Paula Frye, William F. McGee

God Child: Lani Terselic (Takaki)

Step Children: Rod Moore, Jeff Moore, Lynn Cresswell, Stan Moore

Grandchildren: Sharelle Osgood, Terry Frye, Lamar Crawley

Great Grandchildren: Adrianna and Nicholas Spears, Jayla and Journey Osgood

Host of Nieces, Nephews and Relatives:

Dr. Doris Evans

Dr. Dorothy and Raymond Holmes

M. David Jr & Celeste Lee

David Lee III & Aaron Lee

Antoine & Sharon Simpson

Shaunda Simpson & Joel Perry

Wanda McGee

Sylvia Morrison

Wendell, Jr & Maryse Haynes

Marcus Haynes

Portia Brodie

Toni Milton

Byron McGee

Renee Pittman

Cheryl McGee Morgan

Bobbie Stone

Precious Stone Erskine

Wendell Haynes, Sr.

Mrs. Whittington

Cecelia McFall

Lauren Stewart

Sonja & Theodore Armand

Jim & Rita Kelly

Lee, Cori, C.J., Jordan & Tyler Irvin

Steve, Tara, Gavin & Lauren Block

Jay, Monika & Anja Kelly

James & Maryann Johnson

Tom & Jamie Sennett

Sydney & Shelby Sennett

Don & Shirley Corrie

Joe & Lori Ferguson

John & Jackie Corrie

Lani, Joe, Kala & Quinten Terselic