Remembering Stanley Ikenberry

In the days and weeks following the April 1st death of Stanley Oliver Ikenberry, the University of Illinois’ 14th president—its youngest at 44 and longest-serving at 16 years—family, colleagues and friends mourned and told stories of a bold era in the U. of I.’s 158-year history.   

The highlights of Ikenberry’s term, 1979-1995, capture his profound impact on the university’s legacy: consolidating the Chicago Circle and the Medical Center campuses to create the University of Illinois Chicago; 100 projects yielding 7 million square feet of new construction and major renovations, costing over $830 million (nearly $2 billion today); $1 billion raised in private giving; a President’s Award scholarship program for high-achieving, underrepresented students; widespread and bipartisan goodwill in the state legislature, and with governors; and an open and welcoming President’s House overseen by Ikenberry’s partner of 66 years, Judith Life Ikenberry, who hosted more than 125,000 guests during their 16 years as stewards of the private-public house.

Judy and Stan Ikenberry met at Michigan State University, married and eventually had three sons: David, PHD ’90 BUS, Steven and John. She recalls their late evening walks and talks in the Urbana neighborhood just north of the President’s House on Florida Avenue. 

“He loved to walk the neighborhood at night…. We walked the ‘state streets’ at 9 o’clock,” she says. “He’d open up to me; it helped him focus his thinking as he was coming to decisions. I was his sounding board.”

John Ikenberry was in grade school when the family moved from Penn State to Urbana in late summer 1979. “Though I haven’t lived there for decades, I feel much of who I am today was set during that time,” he says.

Older brother David recalls a front-yard student protest for which his parents ordered coffee and cookies to be delivered from the Illini Union catering service. That act of kindness made such an impression on the protestors that, decades later, when one of their children attended the U. of I., he requested an audience with the former president. Ikenberry, of course, was delighted to meet him. 

Since Ikenberry’s passing, former colleagues and friends have reminisced about the qualities that made him such a successful university president: warmth, respect, intelligence, loyalty, passion, savvy.

David Olien, MS ’79 ED, Ikenberry’s lead legislative liaison and chief of staff, recalls him as a man of “unquestioned integrity.”

“That made him powerful—trusted and admired by students, faculty and staff, as well as donors, governors and legislators,” Olien says. “His sole purpose was to make a great university even greater.”

The Board of Trustees never forgot that. And when Illinois president B. Joseph White resigned in 2009 following an admissions scandal, the trustees asked Ikenberry to return, as interim president. To the surprise of no one who knew him, he quickly cleaned up the wreckage left by the scandal and helped restore the U. of I.’s reputation.

“People knew all would be well because he was back,” Olien says.

Morton Weir joined the Illinois faculty in 1960 as an experimental psychologist and was both one of Ikenberry’s vice presidents for academic affairs and appointed by him to be chancellor at Urbana-Champaign.

During his 16 years as university president, the charming and sincere Stan Ikenberry became a beloved figure among alumni, faculty, students and more. Left: Ikenberry with Arnold Beckman, donor and namesake of the Beckman Institute, 1989; (right) in the 1994 Homecoming Parade, with his wife Judy. (Images courtesy of UIAA)

Weir recalls Ikenberry as a skilled delegator and a thoughtful administrator, whose budget proposals were not rote accounting exercises, but rather, thematic documents that functioned as academic plans for the upcoming year—informed by meaningful dialogue with the campuses’ executive committees, based on the university’s actual research and teaching needs. Not only that, Weir says, “he was a charming guy, a big picture kind of leader and the best person I ever worked with.”

As Ikenberry’s tenure advanced, so did his skill at anticipating issues, recalls Weir: “He seemed to see things coming down the pike that others didn’t see.”

As a result of that foresight, the consolidation that created UIC—a long, involved and sometimes difficult process—worked out well. “Much better than some people expected,” Weir says.

Over decades of personal and volunteer attachment to the campus and university, Jane Hayes Rader, ’54 LAS, served as the board of directors’ chair for the Alumni Association and the UI Foundation.

“I saw him in almost every setting I was in…and I knew him as a friend,” she says. Ikenberry was kind, accepting and liked a good time. “I admired how warm he was, not just with me, but with everyone. And another thing that was totally obvious was his strong relationship with his wife, Judy. They were a team.”

George “Bill” Howard, BA ’56 LAS, JD ’59, was on the Board of Trustees for 18 years, including during the national search that yielded Ikenberry in 1979.   

“Underlying all of our work together was love for the institution and a determination to do the best for the best,” Howard says. The president had both “respect for the office of trustee and plans for making things work.” And he was “a very persuasive fellow.”

Craig Bazzani was Ikenberry’s vice president for business and finance for most of his term. Bazzani says, “He always had my back, and I think that was a fairly pervasive feeling [for those who worked for him].”

Ikenberry had a strong command and understanding of the U. of I.’s complex multibillion dollar budget and senior administration spanning three campuses, Bazzani says. He “was collegial with faculty, respectful of non-academic groups and labor leaders, and had a good hand on the operational side of the system, which was more centralized [then].”

James Stukel, MS ’63 ENG, PHD ’68 ENG, former UIC chancellor and Ikenberry’s immediate successor as president, calls him “a once in a generation” leader who was always good with the state legislature, very creative and influential—a national figure “who protected academic independence from politicians.”

And that’s the president’s job, Stukel says. “The president’s responsibility is to educate the trustees and protect the institution from political interference.”

When former Illinois governor Jim Thompson and then Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley tried to crater Stukel’s likely appointment in 1991 as chancellor of the Chicago campus—they wanted to hire their friend, former Thompson aide Paula Wolff—Ikenberry stood firm. Stukel served four years as UIC’s chancellor (following stints as vice chancellor for research and vice chancellor for academic affairs). Then, upon Ikenberry’s 1995 retirement, Stukel became the U. of I.’s president, serving for a decade. “Clearly, Stan changed my career path and my life,” Stukel says.

When Michael Ross, director of the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA), arrived at Illinois from Columbia University in the fall of 1997, he found that his first conversations with colleagues and patrons were dominated by Ikenberry’s presidency…which had ended two years prior.

“I think that speaks to something about others’ views of Stan’s legendary leadership,” he says. “And what especially was apparent, what stood out, relates to the partnership with Judy, the passion, the love and appreciation for the arts.”

In the years that followed, Ross had many conversations with the Ikenberrys about the value of the arts and KCPA as an important cultural center, leading to their substantial financial gifts and the creation of Krannert’s high-donor-level “Ikenberry Society.”

Among the Ikenberrys’ gifts was a continuing program to support 100 students a year from the Ikenberry Commons residence halls to attend KCPA performances. They called it “Arts in the Ike.”

“He sat with 100 students for the Chicago Symphony,” Ross says, “and he was so at one with them.”

Former trustee Bill Howard, still practicing law at age 90 in downstate Mount Vernon and an ordained Episcopalian priest since 2012, says when he thinks about Ikenberry, he thinks about love: “About his love for his family, his love for the university and, well, we loved him.”

The Ikenberry File

MARCH 3, 1935—APRIL 1, 2025

Education: Shepherd College, where his father Oliver was president, B.A. 1956; Michigan State University, Ph.D. 1960; 16 honorary degrees; UIAA Honorary Alumnus Award, 2019

Family: married Judith Life, 1958; children: David Ph.D., Steven M.D., John Ph.D.; eight grandchildren, one great-grandson

Academic career: Michigan State University, 1958–62; West Virginia University, 1962–69, ends as dean and associate professor; The Pennsylvania State University, 1969–79, ends as senior vice president and professor; University of Illinois, 14th president, 1979–1995 and again in 2009–10; Regent professor and president emeritus, 1995–2025

Professional leader: American Council on Education, 1996–2001; co-principal investigator, National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, 2008–2025

Membership/leader: Founding chair, Big Ten Council of Presidents and Chancellors; chair, National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges;
chair of executive committee, Association of American Universities; chair of trustees, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

Corporate: Pfizer board member and lead director; Harris Bank director; Aquila Inc. board member; TIAA-CREF president of overseers

Offline: family trips, sailing, singing, acting, attending St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Boca Grande, Fla.