Hinsdale’s Robert Crown Center for Health Education will soon celebrate two dozen years of providing health-related instruction to more than 3 million schoolchildren, their parents and teachers.
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The center will be 24 years old in January; its best-known exhibit is a middle-aged female named Valeda (below).
– Valeda, a talking anatomical mannequin called “The Glass Lady,” was on hand when the Robert Crown Center’s predecessor, the Hinsdale Health Museum, opened in 1958 in the new Hinsdale Medical Center, a professional office building.
– The building was owned by the Charles F. Kettering Foundation, named for the inventor of the automobile self-starter.
– Kettering’s son and daughter-in-law, Eugene W. and Virginia, created the museum to inspire better living through knowledge of the human body.
– Initially there were three employees: a director, a public relations specialist and one part-time teacher. Programs were free.
– Upon the advice of Howard Ennes, an international authority on health education, the foundation began to reduce financial support in the late ’60s.
-The Medical Center was sold, and the museum became a tenant. Its 1968 budget was $90,000. Admission fees brought in $20,000, which paid the rent; the remainder came from foundation funds.
– The foundation ceased financial aid in 1972 and was replaced by the Health Education Center of Greater Chicago Inc., later renamed the Health Education Institute.
– In his memory, the family of Robert Crown donated $350,000 toward a new facility, and developer Paul Schwendener gave two-plus acres of land; the $1.8 million Robert Crown Center opened in 1974.
– Today it has a staff of 21, offers 29 programs, sponsors a summer camp and even has a road show. It is supported by grants, foundations, fundraisers, gifts and admissions. This year’s budget is $900,000.