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Andrew Prinz, Elmhurst's Urban Legend, Dies

For more than three decades, he taught students how to encounter cities the Andy Prinz way: with eyes wide open and subway pass at the ready. “Give me fifteen people and I’ll go anywhere in the world,” he said.

Dr. Andrew Karl Prinz, a master teacher, ebullient presence, and the director of urban studies at Elmhurst College for 36 years, died on March 26 after a long illness. He was 73.

Dr. Prinz came to Elmhurst in the fall of 1969 to establish the Department of Urban Studies. It was part of a wave of such programs founded in an era when American cities were experiencing acute social problems.  

The professor passionately loved urban life, even at its lowest ebb, and he communicated his enthusiasm tirelessly to his students—not only in his classroom but also on the streets of Chicago, Sydney, Beijing, London, Moscow, Amsterdam, Toronto and other cities where he took his classes on journeys of celebration and discovery. 

The writer Andrew Santella wrote a profile of Dr. Prinz for the Elmhurst College magazine, Prospect, in 2002. “He has sent out wave after wave of students—suburban kids mostly, brought up to believe that cities offer little more than danger and difficult parking—and urged them to see the great cities of the world, freshly and for themselves,” Santella wrote. “In the process, if they’re lucky, they’ll absorb some of their professor’s joy for city life, a sense of wonder still apparent after a lifetime of exploration.”

Dr. Prinz had a positive genius for friendship, and a knack for reaching out to anyone within hailing distance. “Stroll through downtown Chicago with Prinz and you’ll see him stop to talk with more than one stranger,” Santella wrote. “Sit down for an interview for a magazine profile and be prepared to have him ask most of the questions. Meet him for lunch in a restaurant and watch him try to sell the waitress on pursing a degree in urban studies.”

An erstwhile politician (in 1973, he was elected Democratic Party Committeeman for Oak Park) and a born salesman, Dr. Prinz actively recruited fifteen to twenty students to his department in any given year.

“I was one of his many converts,” laughs Rita Athas ’76, a former aide to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. She started at Elmhurst as a political science major, “but Andy convinced me that my life just wouldn’t be the same unless I took a double major with urban studies. He was able to persuade me because he was so passionate about the subject himself. You picked that up from him, and it made you passionate about it, too.”

To read the complete profile of Dr. Prinz, click here.

Dr. Prinz is survived by his wife, Carol, their children Kurt Prinz, Linda Hoffman, Diane Gardner, and Mark Prinz, his brother Edward Prinz, six grandchildren, and countless former students. 

Visitation for Dr. Prinz will be held on Thursday, April 2, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. at Bethesda Home, 2833 North Nordica Avenue in Chicago, and on Friday, April 3, from 5:00 p.m. until the time of service 7:00 p.m. at Grace Lutheran Church, 7300 West Division Street in River Forest.

The family would appreciate memorials to Grace Church and Bethesda Home.