Maria Whelan, a longtime advocate for children and families in the Illinois educational community, died of a heart attack in Chicago on June 10. Formerly of East Hampton, she was 69 years old.
Ms. Whelan was president and chief executive officer of Illinois Action for Children, a nonprofit agency in Chicago that works on the local and state levels for funding for child care, early childhood education, and other programs that help working families. Her voice was one of the organization's "strongest and most passionate," said Celena Roldan, the chairwoman of the agency's board of directors. "Hers is a voice that cannot be replaced."
Ms. Whelan was born Dec. 4, 1950, at Southampton Hospital, and was raised in East Hampton. One of 12 children of Duane and Mary Whelan, members of the Catholic Worker movement who settled in Northwest Woods in the 1950s, Ms. Whelan was a member of the last graduating class of the Academy of the Sacred Heart of Mary in Sag Harbor in 1968.
She moved to Chicago after graduating from Clarke College in Dubuque, Iowa, in 1972, to attend graduate school at the University of Chicago. After receiving a master's degree in educational leadership, she started her career working as a janitor at St. Mary's School, an alternative school on Chicago's west side. While working at St. Mary's, she met like-minded educators who developed what would become the Carole Robertson Center for Learning, a child care center named for one of the four girls killed in the terrorist bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963.
Ms. Whelan was the Carole Robertson Center's founding executive director from 1976 to 1989, when she was awarded the Community Service Fellowship from the Chicago Community Trust. It allowed her a year to study child development and family support systems both in the U.S. and abroad.
She later served as director of children's services for the City of Chicago's Department of Human Services under Mayor Richard M. Daley and as a senior program officer at the Chicago Community Trust before moving to Illinois Action for Children in 2001.
"Maria Whelan devoted her career to improving the lives of children, families, and communities," Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said. "Her legacy will no doubt continue to shape Illinois's education and human services landscape."
Her family said she "was a force of nature who was not afraid of standing up to powerful interests at city hall and the statehouse to demand they provide the kind of services working families needed to better prepare their children for life." Her husband of more than 40 years, Jack Wuest, described her as someone who "was able to work with everyone, Republicans and Democrats. It was tough work, but she got a lot of joy from seeing the results she was able to achieve."
She was fierce but also warmhearted and welcoming, her family said.
"Maria created community wherever she was and saw in every person someone worthy of respect, a good joke, and a great story," one of her daughters, Ellen Rose Whelan-Wuest of Cornwall, Vt., wrote. "She worked tirelessly to expand opportunity and happiness for as many people as possible, and the world is forever changed by her."
In addition to Mr. Wuest, whom she married on June 30, 1979, and Ms. Whelan-Wuest, Ms. Whelan leaves two more daughters, Catherine Mary Merritt of Evanston, Ill., and Maeve Margaret Whelan of Portland, Ore., and three grandchildren.
She also leaves nine brothers and sisters. They are Margaret Eaton of East Montpelier, Vt.; Susana Kelly of Highland Beach, Fla.; Rebecca O'Herron of Newburgh; David Whelan of Sag Harbor; Anne Mullins of Orland Park, Ill.; John Whelan of East Hampton; Martha Whelan-Robinson of Evansville, Ind.; Elizabeth Whelan Kotz of Bridgehampton, and Joseph Whelan of Bristol, R.I. Her parents died before her, as did a brother, Peter Whelan, and a sister, Catherine M. Foley.
A family funeral service for Maria Whelan was held at the Donnellen Funeral Home in Chicago. Her ashes will be buried in Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
Mr. Wuest said memorial gatherings will be held in East Lyndon, Vt., where the family shared a cottage with siblings, and in Chicago, once the coronavirus pandemic passes.
"We could fill Soldier Field," he said, "and if we limited everyone to one Maria story, we could probably get through it in 48 hours."
