Aug. 24--William W. Volkman owned a Wheaton-area construction firm that built many apartment buildings and helped build Judson University in Elgin. He also taught economics as an associate professor at Wheaton College for more than 10 years, and published several books and a free Christian magazine for 24 years.
"He stood tall as a role model for me in the way he lived, both in his successes in life and his difficulties," said C. William Pollard, former ServiceMaster chairman and CEO and Wheaton College trustee emeritus, who was a student of Volkman's in the late 1950s.
Volkman, 90, died of complications from prostate cancer July 23 at his Wheaton home, said his wife, Jan Ord Harris.
William Walter Volkman was born in River Forest, graduated from Oak Park River Forest High School and then served in the Navy from 1943 to 1946. With the help of the GI Bill, he received a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1949 and a law degree in 1952 from Northwestern University.
After law school, Volkman taught night school at Northwestern and worked days as a tax attorney.
He envisioned himself as a missionary, according to his 1983 memoir, "The Wink of Faith," and he sought to take graduate-level courses on Bible training at Wheaton College. Instead, college officials drafted him to teach in the school's department of economics and business administration, and he later became an associate professor of economics and business law.
Volkman soon concluded that one mission field for him was the classroom.
"I know that God used me to challenge dozens of future lawyers and businessmen to a deeper level of Christian commitment," Volkman wrote in "The Wink of Faith."
Volkman was Wheaton's youngest professor at the time, and students affectionately called him "Doc."
"He was the best teacher I had at Wheaton," Pollard said. "He taught the theory, and he would always integrate it with an example of practical application that he had been involved in himself," he said. "So it was theory and application together; that's what made the classroom teaching for me so exciting."
Another former student, Harold "Mac" Airhart, Wheaton developer and Wheaton College trustee emeritus, recalled Volkman's willingness to mentor and counsel students and his desire to share with them issues of morality that he encountered in his work.
"He actually got me going in the direction I went eventually in terms of construction," Airhart said.
Volkman also enjoyed taking students on tours over academic breaks to visit law schools.
While teaching, Volkman supplemented his income by taking on legal, accounting and tax clients. Working with Glen Ellyn real estate developer Willard Monsen, Volkman learned how to develop real estate. He formed a construction company and began putting up apartment buildings.
By 1967, he owned and managed some 15 buildings in Wheaton and Glen Ellyn, and was active in efforts to achieve racial integration in those residences.
Volkman was also a key player at Judson College, now Judson University, in Elgin. His construction company erected the first five buildings on Judson's campus and he served on Judson's board of trustees for a time.
In 1965, Volkman built the Four Seasons motel on Roosevelt Road in Glen Ellyn and for many years owned and ran a coin shop inside the motel.
Volkman served on many charitable boards and committees in the 1960s and also was raising a family. In 1963, he decided to resign from Wheaton College -- remaining for one more year in a part-time capacity -- and wind down his tax and legal practice..
"He loved teaching, but it took a lot of his time and energy, and after 20 years of marriage, he ... wanted to spend time with his family," said Harris, his wife.
In 1974, Volkman started Union Life, a free bimonthly Christian publication.
In addition to self-publishing his memoir in 1983, he self-published a book about contemplative prayer, "Basking in His Presence," in 1996. Volkman wound down his various business endeavors in the late 1990s, selling the Four Seasons motel in 1998. That same year, he discontinued publication of Union Life.
In 2004, some of Volkman's former students honored him by funding a new, endowed professorship at Wheaton College, the William W. Volkman Chair of Business.
Volkman's first wife, Marjorie, died in 2008. In addition to Harris, Volkman is survived by four daughters, Vicki Janik, Robin Wilhelm, Kim Schweinberg and Valerie DeKam; a son, Scott; 13 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Bob Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.
