John P. Kretzmann (1944 – 2023)

L:Freshman Herald                 R: Nassau Herald

L: From the DePaul website                                          R: With wife Ingrid

The class has received the sad news of Jody's death from his wife Ingrid. Ingrid wrote this notice of Jody's death on Caring Bridge:

"His memorial service is currently planned for 11 AM on Saturday the 14th. (There is a big demo downtown at 2:00 that day for justice for women, which Jody of course would support you all going to). There will be a reception in the church parlors after the service. Ebenezer Lutheran Church is at 1650 Foster Avenue, Chicago, just west of Ashland. We will keep you updated on this site."

Tom Allison was present at the January 14 memorial service (on YouTube) and reported:

"It was a wonderful memorial service. John McDonough and I were there, and Peter Freeman, Lanny Jones, and Bill Leahy watched it live on U-Tube. Over 300 people attended. I was one of the speakers. The preacher, The Rev. Dr. Barbara Rossing, a dear friend of Jody and Ingrid's, said that of all the awards that Jody had received, the one he most treasured was the Locomotive Award from the Class of '66."

Please see the DePaul University Asset-Based Community Development Institute's memorial (the tribute from John McKnight is very good) and the Caring Bridge site for numerous wonderful tributes to Jody from his many friends, including several from '66 classmates. Note: You will be asked to provide an email address and to create an account with a password.

Also see The Daily Princetonian obituary, Remembering former ‘Prince’ chairman John “Jody” Kretzmann ’66, published January 12 and this February 1 Chicago Tribune obituary.

The class recognized Jody's numerous contributions by presenting him with the first Class of 1966 Locomotive Award (scroll to the bottom to see the award citation) on February 25, 2017 at an Alumni Day dinner. This photo was taken during that occasion.

L-R: Jody Kretzmann, T.R. Reid, Jim Merritt, Lanny Jones

From Past Reunion Books

The following reunion book scans chronicle Jody's life and are arranged newest first.

55th Reunion

Written by Jody's wife, Ingrid

25th Reunion

Memories and Tributes

Note: Additional condolences, memories, and pictures may also be shared on this memorial page by responding directly to 66_CommTeam@tiger66.org.

Al LaMontagne: John (as I knew Jody back in freshman year) and I were roommates with Lewis MacAdams and Charlie Riggi in Pyne Hall. I was probably closest to John at that time and my favorite memory of that year was a road trip during spring break with John and George Largay. We went to George's home in Connecticut, Boston for a Celtics game and out to Cape Cod. I also remember going with John into Philadelphia to see his father, who I believe at the time was the leader of Valparaiso University and in town for a conference. Dinner at Bookbinders was nothing like Commons. Other memories are MacAdams introducing us to Bob Dylan and Greenwich Village. As I remember that time, none of us spent a lot of time with each other. We all had different interests, class schedules, etc. and all split up when plans were made for roommates in sophmore year. I lost touch with John after freshman year but always think of him as one of the really nice guys who included me in some activities that created great memories.

John Slidell: Quite a shock! "Kretz" was always a friendly, easy going guy. Senior year he was one of our roommates, downstairs in Lower Hog Hall (Gauss) with Scully, Gogolak, Bliss, Largay and McGinnity. He ran the newspaper, while I had the Tiger Magazine and our offices were in the same building, so we talked "publications" quite a bit. We also roomed together with Lumpkin  in NYC down in the East Village the summer before our Senior year. There we both had intern jobs at Time-Life. His was writing for Sports Illustrated, and he  loved it. We talked briefly at a recent reunion (our 50th I believe), but unfortunately, I mostly lost track of John after graduation.

Ord Elliott: I echo Slides's [John Slidell] remembrance of John (never knew him as Jody either). I have one vivid memory from our senior year. I had spent months laboring over my thesis. I walked into John’s dorm room to chat one day about a week before we were due to turn them in. He was hammering away on his typewriter. I asked what he was working on. He said he had just started his thesis. I couldn’t believe it. I said you’ve just started and you’re only going to do one draft on your typewriter. He just laughed, not a bead of sweat or anxiety in his voice, totally relaxed like this was no big deal. Born to be a writer! I’m still in awe.

Glenn Goltz: Jody’s death is a real loss for our class. We corresponded from time to time during his recent residence and illness in Door Country, Wisconsin. A resident of the 6th Entry of Pyne freshman year and then moving up with Merritt, Leahy, McDonough, Rawson and Jones. Jody always seemed to me to be on the “right side” of every important issue and still never “ruffled” or suffering a loss of his special “midwestern” good humor, friendliness and openness....Early death seems to be picking off to many our really good classmates. Bill [Leahy] was so right to be sure Jody got our first “locomotive”.

Bill Leahy: I first met Jody in August 1962 at a Princeton admitee picnic. From that day until his death, he remained the steady, calm and focused saint for social justice. His visionary ideas, his ability to develop and mentor a team of colleagues and to implement his visions for the good of communities, both domestic and international, are well known in academic circles and to those close to him personally. The past five years have been most taxing on Jody, his wife Ingrid and children Marcus and Katie. They have been selfless in providing Jody the best quality of life he could obtain. May he now rest in peace and may his family be given the peace they also deserve.

Lanny Jones:

"Here are a few thoughts about Jody's professional life....

"I have been so close to Jody that it's hard to see all of him. He was a role model for me back when he was the 'Prince chair and did such a bold and courageous job there. I remember our parents thinking that opposing the Vietnam War was somehow unpatriotic. He persuaded us otherwise. Jody's father was O.P. Kretzmann, who was a Lutheran theologian and President of Valparaiso University for 28 years! Jody somehow made his own way out from his father's large shadow.

"In 1968, he introduced me to his Valpo HS classmate Sarah Brown, my future wife, for which I will be forever grateful. Jody later helped the first-ever Black citizens to move to Valparaiso. He was a conscientious objector.

"In 1993, he and his Northwestern colleague John McKnight co-authored Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing A Community’s Assets, which outlined their asset-based approach to community development.[4] The Community Development Program at Northwestern University’s Institute for Policy Research established the Asset-Based Community Development Institute based on three decades of research and community work by Kretzmann and McKnight.

"They also supported and greatly increased the impact of the Associated Colleges of the Midwest, enabling a group of small liberal arts colleges to support urban studies programs in Chicago and elsewhere.

"He was also a baseball fan and a pretty good player himself, as long as his knees would let him."

Additional Photos

1966 - Chairman of the Daily Princetonian

Jody and Ingrid. December, 2019

Jody and Ingrid with Katie and Marcus

New Puppy Whiskey. January, 2021. Used for Jody's Masked Men entry