Paul Jans Collection

An inventory of his papers at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Biography of Paul Jans

Paul Albert Jans was born in 1917. He graduated from Elmhurst College (Ill.) in 1938, studied at Eden Theological Seminary (St. Louis), and earned a Masters of Social Work degree at Washington University, St. Louis in 1949. While at Elmhurst, Jans met his future wife, June, with whom he would have four sons.

Jans' long career in social service began when he was assigned to the Fellowship Center in St. Louis by the Evangelical and Reformed Church. Work as the program director of Grace Hill House in St. Louis and later as director of the Lighthouse Philadelphia settlement enabled Jans to pursue innovative programs such as "Meals on Wheels" initiated in 1953. The program organized the delivery of prepared meals to the housebound elderly and disabled by volunteers and was later copied throughout the United States. Jans received the Benjamin Rush Award in 1956 for this effort and was later awarded the Distinguished Service Citation by Washington University in 1960 for "Meals on Wheels" and a research study of prevention methods for juvenile delinquency among boys aged seven to twelve.

Paul Jans took over as Executive Director of Hull-House on March 5, 1963. He oversaw the sale of the original Hull-House complex on Halsted Street to the University of Illinois. The concept of Hull-House as a settlement was replaced by that of the new Hull-House Association with an emphasis on decentralized social services provided throughout the greater Chicago area. Jans expanded the staff from 87 to 350 workers and was temporarily able to expand the annual budget from around $250,000 to $3,000,000. Notable achievements during this period included the development of a robust theatre program that attracted performers and audiences from Chicago's less privileged communities. Paul Jans organized a new summer camp for inner-city youth in East Troy, Wisconsin after the Bowen Country Club was sold to the City of Waukegan. Jans above all sought to adapt Hull-House to changing circumstances and make its services valuable and relevant in an era of suburbanization, a shift in patterns of international immigration, and a rising service economy that provided a relatively high standard of living for many educated and upwardly mobile Americans, but also left growing islands of urban and rural poverty behind them. Financial problems, however, made the more ambitious projects of the Hull-House Association untenable and Jans resigned in 1969.

Jans managed the University of Southern California's School of Music in the Arts from 1971 to 1974. Social work remained important to Jans as he developed a program for the rehabilitation of juvenile offenders in Illinois in the 1970s. Jans later co-founded a nightclub and started a new career as a real estate salesman after moving to Michigan. Paul Jans was killed in an automobile accident in Gaylord, Michigan on November 20, 1984.

Scope and Contents

The Paul Jans Collection includes memoranda, correspondence, clippings, appointment calendars, and periodicals related to his work at Hull-House. Materials are arranged by chronological order.

Administrative Information

Custodial History

Paul Jans donated these materials to the University of Illinois at Chicago on May 18 and November 20, 1970.

Detailed Description/Box and Folder Listing