From the student union to the parking lots to the UIC Pavilion, James J. Overlock left his fingerprints across the University of Illinois at Chicago campus.
Hired three years before the opening of Mayor Richard J. Daley’s realized dream of a major university in the middle of the city, Mr. Overlock spent 24 years at the school overseeing construction of non-academic structures.
Lured from the University of Washington in Seattle in 1962, where he held a similar position, Mr. Overlock was UIC’s first director of auxiliary services and eventually became associate chancellor.
“I can’t picture [the campus] without his presence,” said Mr. Overlock’s former UIC colleague Stan Delaney. “It would be there, but I can’t imagine what it would look like.”
Mr. Overlock, 84, died of heart failure Friday, June 23, in his Barrington home.
The UIC project was unlike most university construction projects undertaken to that point, as the city created a large campus all at once, Delaney said. A bear of a man who played college football, Mr. Overlook was quiet but excelled as a manger with his precise and exacting style, Delaney said.
“Creating the campus was a majorly forward idea, and he was very excited about it,” Delaney said. “He was excited about the support of higher education and liked students.”
Born and raised in Kent, Wash., Mr. Overlock grew up in comfort as the son of a banker, said his son Craig.
After graduating from high school, he wanted to attend West Point but wasn’t chosen because of an overbite, family said. Instead, he accepted a football scholarship and attended the University of Washington, where he graduated with a mathematics degree.
He met Virginia A. Davis at the school in 1942, and they married a year later.
In World War II, Mr. Overlock was an artillery officer in the Marines and served in the 28th Regiment, which raised the American flag over Iwo Jima, family members said.
One of only 600 men in his 3,400-person regiment who wasn’t killed or wounded on Iwo Jima, he was awarded the Bronze Star for directing naval gunfire support during the initial invasion of the island, family members said.
For years, he rarely discussed his military experience.
“He used to say people who liked to talk about what they did in the war probably didn’t see a lot of action,” his son said.
The reserved manner was standard.
In 1946, Mr. Overlock returned to the University of Washington as manager of student auxiliary services.
He was recruited to UIC in 1962 to help develop and build the campus, which opened in 1965. He and his wife moved to Glenview, where they raised their four children.
After retiring in 1986, he and his wife moved to Sun City West in Arizona. In May they returned to the Chicago area to be closer to family.
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include daughters Kathryn Lee Nusbaum and Susan Graeme; another son, James S.; a sister, Janice May Heaton; and five grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 11 in the First Presbyterian Church of Glen Ellyn, 500 N. Anthony St.
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jbnoel@tribune.com
