Wallace William Kirkland ’42

Kirk, 83, the son of social workers, and an eminent physician and activist, died Oct. 15, 2003, of congestive heart failure in Elmhurst, Ill. Raised in a home above Hull House, Chicago's first settlement house, he learned the value of community service from his parents and renowned founder Jane Addams.

Kirk majored in biology at Princeton, earned a medical degree from Northwestern U. in 1946, volunteered for the Army Medical Corps, and was separated as captain in 1948. For 54 years Kirk practiced internal medicine. He was on the attending staff of Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital, Chicago, where he served as associate professor of clinical medicine, and also was on the attending staff at West Suburban Medical Center in Oak Park, Ill.

In addition to his many achievements in medicine, our quiet dedicated classmate gained the love of all whose lives he touched, and was said to be the "most beloved man in Oak Park." As a member and past chairman of the Oak Park Community Relations Commission, he was extraordinarily effective in advancing racial integration and fair housing in the Oak Park Community.

To Kirk's wife, Mary Jane, daughters Nancy and Jill, stepchildren Michael and Christina, three grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren, the class extends its deepest condolences.

The Class of 1942