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Leaving a legacy
for students

Photo of Adele M. LeGere.

Adele M. LeGere (MUND ’48) never found herself very far from Loyola’s Lake Shore Campus. After graduating with a degree in psychology, she raised her young family in Chicago’s Edgebrook neighborhood—in the same house where she lived until she died last spring after a long and happy life.

Adele discovered an educational home at Mundelein College in the mid-1940s. There, she served as class president and captain of the basketball team. An industrious student who graduated with a 4.0 GPA, Adele’s favorite place on campus then and for the rest of her life, according to her daughter Mary, was the Madonna della Strada Chapel. “She just loved it.”

One of LeGere’s last acts demonstrated her gratitude and affection for her education by naming as a beneficiary of her IRA Loyola’s Gannon Center for Women and Leadership Endowed Scholarship Fund to help and encourage future generations of women to pursue their own dreams.

“She was an incredible mom,” said Mary, a professional singer and voice instructor. “She fully supported the people who were important to her, especially my brother Paul [a principal at Deloitte Consulting], myself, our families, her extended family, and many friends.”

Adele taught math at Good Counsel High School in Chicago for a number of years before continuing her career for nearly 30 more at Oakton College. She was one of the first recipients of its Outstanding Teacher Award and a respected mentor to students and colleagues.

According to her daughter, Adele was “100 percent a teacher,” who supported everything she believed in, including the Gannon Center.

“My mom gave to the Gannon Center because she firmly believed in its mission to educate and foster women leaders,” said Mary. “She also believed that women should have the same opportunities as men and that they should earn the same wage as men.

“I’m happy she was able to give back as much as she did and that she realized her final wish to help future Gannon Scholars by making this gift. She really loved Mundelein and transferred that affection to Loyola.”

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