G. Alfred Hess Jr., an expert on Chicago school reform and urban education policy, died Jan. 27. He was 68 and had pancreatic cancer.
Mr. Hess retired in December as a professor at Northwestern University’s school of education and social policy, where he had worked since 1996. He was the director of the Center for Urban School Policy.
Before moving to the university, he founded and directed the nonprofit Chicago Panel on School Policy. He was the author of two books about the city’s public schools.
Mr. Hess was also a former president of the Council on Anthropology and Education.
