Hall of Fame

The IIT Hall of Fame celebrates the contributions to the university and society of men and women who have established an outstanding professional record for integrity, innovation, professional or academic achievement, leadership, public responsibility and citizenship. The individuals must have established a personal reputation for outstanding character, bringing great credit and honor upon the university. Those featured in this Hall of Fame include founders, famous faculty and alumni, and others who have provided extraordinary service to the university.

Hall of Fame Inductees 1980 – 2006

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1980
Fanny Butcher
Lee De Forest
Lloyd H. Donnell
Benny Goodman
Samuel I. Hayakawa
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
László Moholy-Nagy
Richard B. Ogilvie
Herbert A. Simon
Harold L. Stuart
Lowell Thomas

1981
Marvin Camras
William F. Finkl
Ludwig C. Hilberseimer
Weymouth Kirkland
Thomas J. Moran
Donald F. Othmer
Harris Perlstein
Dorothy Thompson

1982
Florence K. Bassett
Martin Kilpatrick
Henry R. Linden
Karl Menger
William Simon
Abe M. Zarem

1983
Beatrice P. DeLany
Grote Reber
Robert L. Roderick
John I. Yellott

1984
Rowine H. Brown
Grant L. Hansen
Leonard Reiffel
Maynard P. Venema

2002
Founders’ Group
  Lewis Institute
     Allen C. Lewis
     George N. Carman
Armour Institute of Technology
     Armour Family (3 members)
     Frank. W. Gunsaulus
  Illinois Institute of Technology
     Alex. D. Bailey
     James D. Cunningham
     Henry T. Heald
  Chicago-Kent College of Law
     Joseph M. Bailey
     Marshall D. Ewell
     Thomas A. Moran

Innovators
  Julia A. Beveridge
  Alfred Caldwell
  Max M. Frocht
  Max Jakob
  Edwin H. Lewis
  Walter Peterhans
  Robert W. Galvin
  Robert A. Pritzker

2006
John T. Rettaliata

2006 IIT Hall of Fame Inductee

Dr. John Rettaliata became president of IIT in 1952 at age 40—the youngest IIT president to date and, at the time, the youngest chief executive of a scientific school in the United States. Succeeding Henry Heald, Rettaliata held the position for 21 years. During his tenure, he oversaw the greatest growth period in the history of IIT: the Main Campus completed, Chicago-Kent College of Law added, Stuart School of Business founded, and IIT grow to be the biggest engineering school in the United States. While it was Mies van der Rohe’s design that made Main Campus the historical landmark it is today, Rettaliata's vision made the university a leader in science education.

On architecture faculty from 1938 to 1967. An associate of Mies van der Rohe at the Bauhaus, Hilberseimer came to Armour Institute with Mies in 1938 and taught at IIT until his death. The founder and chair of IIT's Department of City and Regional Planning, he was an advocate of "breathing space" around downtown buildings and is credited with helping change Chicago's building codes to encourage such space.

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1902: Chicago College of Law and Kent College of Law, both begun in the 1880s, merge to create Chicago-Kent College of Law
1937: The New Bauhaus: American School of Design, forerunner of the Institute of Design, is founded by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and the Association of Arts and Industries
1953: Carman Hall built
1955: S.R. Crown Hall completed; Bailey Hall constructed