Farewell to Beloved Academic Advisor Bonnie Gregg

The Jaguar community is mourning the loss of a beloved member. Senior Academic Advisor Bonnie Gregg recently died, after a long battle with ALS.

A GSU alumna, Gregg won two prestigious, peer-nominated awards during her 10-year tenure at Governors State University, where she joined the Board of Governors administrative staff in 1998.

She left and returned in 2006 as a member of the Counseling team as an Academic Advisor where she served until 2016, when she left on medical leave.

The following year, Bonnie received the prestigious 2017 Dr. Gerald C. Baysore Award in honor of GSU’s previous Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs. It is the highest honor GSU bestows on employees.

In a nomination letter signed by 36 members in the College of Education, Interim Dean Shannon Dermer said Gregg represents the qualities central to a Baysore awardee.

“She has absolute integrity, total competence, generous dedication, and unfailing civility,’’ Dermer wrote.

“Alumni still say, ‘Bonnie was the best, I don’t know how I would have made it through the program without her,’ ” GSU President Elaine P. Maimon said when she gave Gregg the award during the 2017 Convocation ceremony.

It was the second community-wide award for Gregg.

In 2013, she won an Excellence Award for creating programs and services, including an advising syllabus, a counseling peer mentor program, and study plan sessions that brought students in for group advising.

Gregg also worked with the Counseling program coordinator to develop two new certificate programs – the Post-Masters certificate in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and the Post-Masters Certificate in Marriage and Family Counseling.

In her nomination letter, Dermer invoked a line from Gregg’s beloved movie  “Empire Strikes Back.”

“We may not see her every day anymore, but Bonnie is a Force that will always be felt at GSU. She is a luminous being and a Force that will always be around around us . . .between you, me, the tree, the rock, everywhere.’’

Gregg’s visitation services will be held from 3 – 8 p.m. on Tuesday, April 16 at Clancy Gernon Funeral Home, 295 Main St. NW, Bourbonnais, IL.

The funeral service will be held Wednesday, April 17 at 10 a.m. at St. Teresa Church, 331 N. St Joseph Ave., Kankakee, IL.

A luncheon will immediately follow the funeral service at the Settles Center, 901 S. 9th St., Kankakee IL.

Click here to view Gregg's obituary online.