A longtime trustee of South Suburban College has been named chairman of the college’s board of trustees, the first change in that position in nearly four decades.
Terry Wells, who is also mayor in south suburban Phoenix, was sworn in Jan. 20 to succeed Frank Zuccarelli, who was board chairman since 1987 and died Jan. 3 at his South Holland home.
Wells was appointed trustee to the college’s board in 2001 and has been mayor of Phoenix since 1993, after serving 10 years as a village trustee. He is a retired teacher of U.S. history at Thornton High School in Harvey and previously was president of the South Suburban Mayors & Managers Association.
“Our goal must be to work together to ensure Frank’s programs are continued and his aspirations are fulfilled,” Wells said in a news release. “His dream for the Allied Health & Nursing Center will become Frank Zuccarelli’s legacy.”
Zuccarelli was instrumental in securing for the college nearly $36 million as part of the state’s Rebuild Illinois capital program for a new 130,000-square-foot health care teaching center.
Nearly a fourth of the school’s students are enrolled in programs such as nursing and related health care fields, and the new building will offer courses in registered nursing, nursing assistants and dental hygiene, according to the college.
The South Holland-based college also tabbed a South Holland trustee, Prince Reed, to be a trustee on the community college board. Reed is a senior director of asset and facilities management for DaVita Kidney Care and an elder at Christ Community Church in South Holland.
Zuccarelli, a graduate of Thornridge High School in Dolton, enrolled in what was then Thornton Community College, earning an associate of science degree in 1976 and an associate of arts degree in 1978.
He was elected to TCC’s board of trustees in 1978, initially serving as a student trustee. The school’s name was changed to South Suburban College in 1988.
Zuccarelli had been Thornton Township supervisor since 1993 and had been the township’s Democratic committeeman since 2002.