A teacher and counselor at Evanston Township High School for 25 years, Robert E. Negronida worked with hundreds of students on their plans for life after high school and was an assistant coach on the 1968 state championship basketball team.
Mr. Negronida, 73, died Saturday, Sept. 8, at St. Clare Hospital in Baraboo, Wis., after suffering a heart attack, said his wife, Janet. Former residents of Wilmette, Mr. Negronida and his wife moved in 1989 to Hollandale, Wis., where until recently they ran a rural bed-and-breakfast.
In the 1980s, Mr. Negronida was Evanston High’s college counselor, helping students find appropriate schools and work their way through the application process. Each year, he visited all senior English classes for a day to discuss application essays, said Phil Roden, a retired history teacher at Evanston and a friend of Mr. Negronida’s.
A counselor for most of his career at the high school, Mr. Negronida was involved with a senior seminar program that allowed fourth-year students to pursue projects outside the classroom. Activities ranged from white-water rafting to hanging around Maxwell Street and writing about the scene there, Roden said.
Students who were not bound for college also were able to turn to Mr. Negronida for advice, Roden said. “He had deep respect for carpenters and plumbers and gardeners, and kids appreciate that,” Roden said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Mr. Negronida helped out with Evanston’s basketball, football and track programs. He was an assistant to head coach Jack Burmaster when Evanston defeated Galesburg 70-51 to take home the 1968 state basketball championship, his wife said.
Mr. Negronida’s father, Bernard, was a Chicago teacher and coach at Francis W. Parker School for more than 40 years. Growing up in the Rogers Park neighborhood, Mr. Negronida attended Parker through high school and was an all-around athlete. He was extremely close to his father, who was respected at the school, Roden said.
At Lawrence University in Wisconsin, Mr. Negronida played basketball and threw the javelin for the track-and-field team while getting his bachelor’s degree. He served in the Air Force for 2 1/2 years, earned a master’s degree in counseling at Northwestern University and taught at Palatine High School for two years before starting his tenure at Evanston.
He was known among his colleagues for his sense of humor and his athleticism. Before it was discontinued in the 1970s, he emceed the annual men’s faculty steak fry, a borderline bawdy event where administrators were roasted by staff.
His throwing arm remained strong years after his collegiate experience in the javelin toss. On a dare from Roden during a trip to Colorado, he chucked some rocks at a horse trough from the top of a butte more than 100 yards away. His first two throws plunked right in.
“He had the best arm I’ve ever seen,” Roden said.
After his 1989 retirement from Evanston High, Mr. Negronida and his wife moved to southwest Wisconsin and ran the Old Granary Inn, a bed-and-breakfast with outbuildings that Mr. Negronida renovated. He also was a volunteer at the Grandview Folk Art site, and was on the local school board.
Survivors also include a son, Tim; two daughters, Jill Hampton and Amy; two sisters, Vicki Capalbo and Laura; eight grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Mr. Negronida’s brother, Peter, was a production editor at the Tribune who died in 1993.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Hollandale Lutheran Church in Hollandale, Wis. A service will follow. A service also will be held from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday in the First Congregational Church of Wilmette, 1125 Wilmette Ave.
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ttjensen@tribune.com
