Jane Heckman Papers

Jane Chippendale Stewart Heckman was born in May 1921 in Dobbs Ferry, New York where she grew up with her parents and her two brothers Peter and Jack.  She went to the women’s college, Barnard, at the age of 16, graduating in 1941.  She went on to receive her Masters of Social Work in 1944 at the University of Michigan and afterwards worked as a community organizer in Chicago, Detroit, and Pittsburgh.  In 1955 she married a widower Tom Heckman.  Together with his two sons Eric and Jan, whom she adopted, and Tom and Jane’s son, Mark, they lived in DuPage County. Heckman remained involved in Barnard College as an alumnae and became involved in numerous organizations over her lifetime including: the American Association of University Women, Older Women’s League (OWL), the Partnership Institute, the Glen Ellyn Book Club, and the West Suburban Peace Action Network.  She was also a Democratic Precinct Committeeman for more than twenty-one years and was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church.      Jane Heckman’s involvement in the DuPage area YWCA began in 1965 when she was hired by the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago to investigate area needs, culminating in the opening of the West Suburban Area YWCA in 1966.   Under Heckman’s leadership, the West Suburban Area YWCA developed the Urban/Suburban Day Camp; Prairie Homesteaders which educated Junior High students on the importance of prairie land; DuPage Area Women against Rape which educated the public about rape and provided services to victims of rape; and established numerous programs on race, sexism, divorce, and older women’s issues.  The West Suburban YWCA also established a Displaced Homemakers program that prepared women for  re-entering the workforce.  Heckman’s concern for international issues such as apartheid, also brought international issues to focus in DuPage County.  Heckman took part in the YWCA’s International Study Project in the 1980s, as well as developed and implemented programs to educate the public on international issues and understanding such as: “Global Thinking on Local Issues”and the International Minoan Celebration of Partnership in 1992. In 1987 After leading the West Suburban Area YWCA for twenty-one years, Jane Heckman became the director of Forest Beach, a complex in Michigan owned by the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago to host programs and events.  Heckman worked to make Forest Beach a financially solvent sight for YWCA programs.  Despite the work of Heckman and others, the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago sold Forest Beach under a cloud of controversy in 1989.  Heckman retired in late 1988, but still remained involved in YWCA affairs and in other organizations. Throughout much of the 1980s and 1990s, Jane Heckman worked on creating a project on the history of the DuPage area YWCA. In the 1990s, Heckman received funding to start work on “Ordinary Women Accomplishing Extraordinary Things,” culminating in a collection of interviews and group discussions on the role of women and the YWCA in the DuPage area. Many of these interviews and group discussions were filmed and aired on the local Community Focus television show in 2002 and subsequently “Ordinary Women Accomplishing Extraordinary Things” was released on DVD. After years of service to the DuPage area and receiving numerous awards for this service, Jane Heckman passed away May 27, 2010.

Note written by "Remembering and Celebrating," "History of YWCA," "Intro to West Suburban"