UIC News Bureau
Contact:  Anne Brooks Ranallo
(312) 355-2523

Joseph DiJohn, UIC transportation researcher, Pace CEO, RTA division head
1943-2011

Educator and transportation specialist Joseph DiJohn passed away at his home in Inverness March 19 at age 67, after battling lung cancer for several months.

DiJohn was director of the University of Illinois at Chicago's Metropolitan Transportation Support Initiative.  He established the program in the Urban Transportation Center of the UIC College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs to conduct research and planning for transportation agencies.  During his 13 years with UIC, he was awarded about $6 million in grants and contracts for research and technical assistance.

DiJohn began teaching at UIC part-time in 1988 while working full-time as CEO of Pace, the surburban bus system. Upon his retirement from Pace in 1998, he became a full-time faculty member and researcher. 

He was manager of the Regional Transportation Authority’s bus division from 1982 until its reorganization in 1984, when he supervised the restructuring of the RTA from an operating agency to a financial oversight and planning agency.
He supervised the creation of Pace and Metra, serving as the first executive director of Pace from

1984 until his retirement in 1998.   He consolidated Pace's private and municipal bus systems into an operation of more than 1,000 buses and 1,300 employees serving hundreds of thousands of riders.   

During the 1970s, as the first CEO of the North Suburban Mass Transit District (Nortran), he developed the fleet and operation that is now the Pace Northwest Division. 
DiJohn grew up in Morton Grove, graduated from Marquette University in 1965, and earned a master's degree in business at DePaul University while working in market research for United Airlines, the Milwaukee Road, and the Rock Island Railroad.

At UIC, DiJohn wrote numerous research papers on the role of transportation systems in sustainable growth and became a frequent source to local and national media on a wide range of transportation issues. He championed more efficient movement of freight through the Chicago area to enhance economic development and job creation.  He expanded UIC's freight initiative with the support of CN Railroad. 
"He had the unique combination of grace and power that served us astoundingly well. Joe was a scholar, a transportation leader and a gentleman," said Steve Schlickman, executive director of the Urban Transportation Center.

“Joe had an uncanny ability to inspire students and his faculty associates. He was a great orator and made his points effectively as a student, practitioner and researcher,” said Siim Soot, associate professor at the Urban Transportation Center.  Soot noted that DiJohn would be remembered as "a person who delighted in train travel."

DiJohn left his mark as a transportation expert internationally. He visited and studied bus systems in Europe, and recently conducted a World-Bank-sponsored study of a proposed subway network for Bogota, Colombia. 

He was twice elected president of the Chicago chapter of the Transportation Research Forum. During the 1970s, he was founding director and president of the Illinois Public Transit Association. 
Along with his professional and academic careers, DiJohn was active in public service. He served on the District 34 school board in Glenview and as an election judge on numerous occasions.  He was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the local draft board.

He is survived by Pam DiJohn, his wife of 44 years, and their two daughters, Julie and Suzanne.
The UIC Urban Transportation Center has established the Joe DiJohn Scholarship Fund at the University of Illinois Foundation  in his honor. Further information is available at 312- 996-4820.

A visitation will be held Friday, 3-9 p.m., at Smith-Corcoran Funeral Home, 185 E. Northwest Hwy., Palatine.  Services will be held Saturday at 10:30 a.m. at Holy Family Church, 2515 Palatine Rd., Inverness, with a viewing in the chapel at 9:30 a.m.