Donald R. Shaner was a longtime management consultant who made use of his business acumen while on the board of Wheaton Warrenville Community Unit School District 200 from 1997 until 2001.
“Don spoke for a great number of people in the community with a great amount of knowledge, and he was a great asset to the board,” said former board President Marie Slater. “He brought great information to the board, which allowed us to have discussions and then reach a decision, and I would call that democracy as we would hope it would be.”
Mr. Shaner, 88, died of congestive heart failure Tuesday, March 10, at Central DuPage Hospital, said his daughter, Sandra Grogan. He was a resident of Wheaton for most of his life.
Born in DeKalb, Mr. Shaner moved with his family from Oak Park to Wheaton at age 2. While in junior high school he met his future wife, Twylah. The couple married in 1948, and she went on to have a long career teaching at Whittier Elementary School in Wheaton. She died in 2003.
Mr. Shaner graduated from Wheaton Community High School and served in the Navy in the Philippines during World War II. After the war, he earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1950. A year later, he earned a master’s degree from U. of I. in the same subject.
After college, Mr. Shaner worked as an engineer for four years for 3M in Minnesota before returning to the Chicago area and taking a job as an engineer at Elgin Watch Co. in Elgin. He also worked in management for Skokie-based International Mineral & Chemical. Then, in the mid-1960s, he joined a consulting firm, Warren King and Associates.
While at Warren King, Mr. Shaner advised states on how to improve the management of public universities, focusing on eliminating the duplication of services. Mr. Shaner started his own consulting firm in 1968 and continued to consult for universities.
Mr. Shaner later consulted for private companies, helping computerize inventory control in large distribution centers, his daughter said. He stepped back from his work in the 1990s.
In 1997, Mr. Shaner ran for and won a seat on District 200’s board. Almost immediately, he persuaded his fellow board members to hire a facilities manager to oversee the district’s properties. After a nationwide search, the board hired John Sluis.
Mr. Shaner had a mixed record with the initiatives he proposed. His efforts to prevent the razing and replacement of the 19th-century Longfellow Elementary School in Wheaton were fruitless, and he had trouble finding support from fellow board members to return to the days of three high schools in Wheaton, which had been the case from 1973 until 1983.
However, Mr. Shaner found success at persuading district officials to set up a system to track district spending on a monthly basis, instead of annually.
“He had a lot of innovations at his advanced age, and he pushed the whole school board and the superintendent to have monthly transparency so they could see how much they’d spent so far in the year,” said Joseph Mahady, a longtime district watchdog. “They fought him like crazy, but they did it. He would make a decision based on the analysis and not the politics, and he really contributed. Everybody else said they were for the kids, but Don Shaner demonstrated it.”
Mr. Shaner long had questioned district officials’ efforts to expand its existing high schools, and he withheld his support for an ultimately successful 1998 referendum question that would have raised taxes to repair and renovate district grade schools and expand its high schools. However, he actively supported a $35 million referendum question in 1999 that funded work for elementary schools only.
“Don really invested a great deal of time to his board service, not just at the meetings but really throughout every week. He was attending meetings with staff and doing a lot of legwork in preparation for board meetings,” said former board member Alan Bolds. “I really remember his great commitment of time to learning what he could about the district and applying that to his board service.”
Mr. Shaner lost his bid for re-election in 2001.
In 1958, Mr. Shaner built a home near the Chicago, Aurora & Elgin railroad tracks on Wheaton’s south side. He acted as his own general contractor, his daughter said.
“He could’ve taken a tract home, but he thought he could do better than that for the same amount of money,” she said. “Dad and Mom put on the roof themselves, and put in drywall and ceramic tile.”
He sold the house last summer and moved into a retirement community in Wheaton.
Mr. Shaner also is survived by a son, Chris; a brother, Victor; and four grandchildren.
Services were held.
