Donald G. Kalec

Commiserations for the Kalec family. His widow, Janice Lowery Kalec, originally comes from the Tollison family line as do I. We are distant cousins. :-)

Don was a friend and classmate (1953) at Howe Military School. He was already an accomplished photographer. His father was a photographic officer in the U. S. Army Signal Corps. Don shot and developed excellent photographs for the School newspaper.

Donald was my friend and colleague for many decades. He was endlessly generous, passionate about his teaching, felt at home in Oak Park, cherished the architectural heritage of Chicago. He seemed to be most comfortable with a camera in his hand. He had a close circle of loved ones, a wide circle of friends, and what must be generations of students who will carry his legacy into the decades ahead. He was a good man who left the world a better place than he found it.

Don was the penultimate master preservation architect, generously sharing with all his incomparable lifelong experiences, knowledge and passions. It was a formative honor and education pinnacle to be a part of Don's first class in Historic Preservation at SAIC.