History of the School
Our School’s Namesake, A. N. Pritzker
For his birthday on January 6, 1986, the name of the “Wicker Park Achievement Skills Center” was changed to “A. N. Pritzker School.” While A. N. Pritzker was a highly educated, billionaire businessman, lawyer, and philanthropist, he was also a great friend to the students at the school that now bears his name. There are the stories of his taking children on his private plane to Houston and bringing the Harlem Globetrotters to the school to play the Wildcats, and then there is his endowment. Before these wonderful stories are told, a little history may be in order.
A. N. Pritzker was born in Chicago on January 6, 1896, and grew up in Wicker Park, attending the Wicker Park School. As reported in the Tribune on February 10, 1986 (“Philanthropist A. N. Pritzker”), “While he was born Abram Nicholas, he always preferred to be known by his initials.” He went off to college and law school and, after practicing law in his father’s firm, he and his brother decided to try their hands at business. They bought the Hyatt House Hotel in Los Angeles. The rest, as they often say, is history. Under Mr. Pritzker’s leadership, Hyatt Hotels and his other companies flourished and grew into a financial empire. A. N. Pritzker, the patriarch of one of the country’s richest families, became a tycoon. Id. Yet as rich and powerful and famous as he was, Mr. Pritzker also became a friend to the students of Wicker Park School.
Here is how that friendship, as reported in the Chicago Tribune on May 20, 1982 (“Tycoon adopts elementary school, and vice versa”), began. In 1979, Mr. Pritzker attended a community festival in Wicker Park and told the principal, Gwen Henslee, that he wanted to help out the school. The principal did not forget that conversation and, a few years later, she wrote him a letter, which she followed up with a phone call. When Mr. Pritzker’s secretary said he would call back, the principal thought she was getting the brush-off. But, five minutes later, he called her back. The principal told Mr. Pritzker that the children had nothing to do after school. Bypassing Board bureaucracy, they put their heads together and came up with a plan. Mr. Pritzker would establish and fund the A. N. Pritzker Youth Foundation, which would be solely for programs for Wicker Park School children. It was not long after that the foundation was funded, that the programs began, and that Mr. Pritzker called upon other business leaders to contribute to the school.
That is not the end of the story. After his first meetings with the principal, Mr. Pritzker became a frequent visitor to the school. But he wasn’t just a visitor. He adopted the school. As he proudly said, “It’s my school and I’m in charge.” And the children adopted him too.
Mr. Pritzker’s generosity and love of the students didn’t end there. One day (no doubt with the required permissions/approvals), he pulled his Lincoln Continental to the front of the school and whisked six children and their teacher off on his private jet to Houston, where they were able to see Johnson Space Center. As Mr. Pritzker said, “I have an empty plane and I had to go anyway.” On another day, Mr. Pritzker took a group of Wicker Park School children to New Orleans. And on another day, another group to Washington D. C.
Then there was the basketball game between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Wicker Park School Wildcats. As reported in the Chicago Tribune on January 8, 1985 (“Wicker Park Trots Out a Party for Pritzker”), in celebration of Mr. Pritzker’s 89th birthday, “The scrappy and determined Wildcats of Wicker Park Elementary School, playing on their home court Monday, trounced the world-renowned Harlem Globetrotters 26-12 with the help of strange calls from a novice referee who is usually the governor of Illinois [James Thompson]. The defeat -- believed to be the first for the Globetrotters since 1971 -- came before a crowd of fans that included retired U. S. Navy Adm. Hyman Rickover, father of the nuclear submarine.” Id. As the Tribune further reported:
Rickover watched the game from the fourth row of the bleachers. Thomas King, for years manager of the Merchandise Mart . . . was there with his wife, the former Barbara Ann Scott, 1948 Olympic figure skating champion.
WGN Broadcaster Jack Brickhouse, former voice of the Bears, Cubs, and White Sox, was the game’s announcer.
Wearing striped referees’ uniforms were Gov. James Thompson and Ray Meyer, retired De Paul basketball coach. . . .
Before the game, School Supt Ruth Love presented Pritzker with a T-shirt, in the school colors of scarlet and yellow, that said “Wicker Park 1910” [in honor of his graduation] on the front and “Pritzker 89” [in honor of his birthday] on the back.
“It’s a pleasure to have you here,” a beaming Pritzker told the audience of 800 Wicker Park kids and invited guests who packed the gym.
A few months before his 90th birthday, Mr. Pritzker reminisced about his life to a Tribune reporter (“Pritzker on Pritzker: a Mogul talks about his family dynasty,” November 24, 1985). During that interview, Mr. Pritzker had this to say:
“I get 30 letters a day asking for money.” . . . One appeal that hit home came five years ago, from his old neighborhood Wicker Park. “A girl calls up and says, ‘I’m the principal of the school you graduated from in 1910,’” A. N. recalls. “’I know you’re lying,’” I say. “’My principal would be 114 today and dead 50 years.’ But she came down, we had lunch, and she told me what was going on out there. It was terrible, murders with butcher knives, dangerous streets, thieves, drug dealing.”
Now A. N. takes over the school when it closes at 2:30 p.m., pays (at a cost of $40,000 a year) for courses in everything from computers to cooking, photography, band and sports and, on his private seven-seater plane, takes students along on trips to New York, Washington, Boston, and Philadelphia. “It’s quite an experience for them,” he says. “They’ve never been out of Chicago, let alone on a plane.” In five years, the school crime rate has dropped 90 per cent.
To celebrate Mr. Pritzker’s 90th birthday, the Wicker Park School community came up with a plan -- they would ask the Board to rename the school “A. N. Pritzker School.” But they had to hurry. Mr. Pritzker was fast approaching 90 and they wanted the name changed in honor of his 90th birthday on January 6, 1986. If that were not enough, it was Board policy not to name a school after anyone who was still alive. As reported in the Tribune of December 14, 1985 (“Board Stands on Ceremony with ‘Adopted’ School”), at the school board meeting early that December, throngs of supporters pleaded for the name change. Speakers included a leading businessman, a prominent lawyer, community residents, parents, students, and teachers. As reported in the Tribune, “The tributes to Pritzker continued to flow from parents -- white, black and Hispanic -- and from students and staff members.”
The Board took the motion under advisement, but not for long. As reported in the Tribune on December 19, 1995: “The Board of Education voted Wednesday to give A. N. Pritzker, patriarch of one of the nation’s richest families, a special 90th birthday present by renaming in his honor Wicker Park School.” The Board’s resolution, adopted on December 18, 1985, read as follows:
MOTION RE: RENAME WICKER PARK ACHIEVEMENT SKILLS CENTER
MOTION ADOPTED to change the name of the Wicker Park Achievement Skills Center to A. N. Pritzker School, to be effective no later than January 6, 1986.
And so, for his 90th birthday on January 6, 1986, the school he loved so much would bear his name.
Just over a month later, Mr. Pritzker was dead. As reported in his obituary in the Chicago Tribune on February 10, 1986 (“Philanthropist A. N. Pritzker”):
A. N. Pritzker, a Chicago businessman, philanthropist, dealmaker, and creator of a family dynasty, died early Saturday at age 90. . . . .
[While Mr. Pritzker endowed many charities], Mr. Pritzker’s own favorite philanthropy was Wicker Park Elementary School, his 19[10] alma mater on Chicago’s West Side. He set up a $40,000-a-year trust fund . . . He enjoyed making frequent visits to the school and giving encouragement to the students. The school was renamed for him in December, shortly before his 90th birthday.
Many things have changed at A. N. Pritzker School during the years since Mr. Pritzker’s death. Children, teachers, staff, and principals have come and gone. New achievements have been honored. Newer memories have been made. But three things remain constant: A. N. Pritzker’s portrait gazes down upon the children and staff in the auditorium, the A. N. Pritzker Youth Foundation continues to fund after-school activities for the students, and the school will forever be named “A. N. Pritzker School” in honor of the man who was not only the children’s friend and benefactor but also their champion.
-- A parent of a student at A. N. Pritzker School
September 16, 2009
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