Dr. Noonan,

I remember telling you that you should go on Jeopardy because I thought you knew everything; you said something about how slow you were to answer a question. I am sure it was modesty.

I met you when I was an eighteen-year-old chronic truant. I was lucky to have you help me develop my understanding of the world. Trees are good. Excessive wealth is bad. I am sure I would have found this out along the way, but you made me hyper-aware way sooner than I would have been otherwise.

I started this message out writing to him, but that only made sense when I was devastated to hear of his passing, so this message is to his spouse and loved ones. He was a fucking incredible teacher and I am so sorry.

Time passes, but his loss surpasses time. For me, he was incredibly inspiring.

Up the punx,

Amanda

I met Sean when he came to Harper College.  He wasn't sure that teaching at a community college was what he had had in mind when he got his Ph.D, but I (a book rep for Norton) told him Harper was a great place, and the number of Ph.D's arriving to teach at places like this was a tremendous benefit to students.  Some people whom I told that to around that time didn't take, but Sean had a joie de vivre for teaching, talking serious smack, for the increasingly tense politics at Harper, and became an important member of that community. 

He gave me a lot of business, so the relationship was a double-win for me, because it was really fun keeping up with him.  He and his partner did some serious work on the inequities of transportation infrastructure in the Chicago region, and I think we see some of the practical results of values-oriented academic research there:  there is no deep-bored fast train from downtown Chicago to O'Hare, but there are real plans now for extending the El much deeper into the transportation deserts of the south side of the city.  There is already rapid bus transit that gets people down to 95th Street from downtown with startling speed (check it out sometime, and think of Sean when you see the smiles on people's faces as they get off the bus down at 95th!)

What I remember particularly is our protest against the increasing use of business-oriented, profit-loss accounting for public institutions.  We never substantiated the alternative language, although I bought some non-mainstream economics texts trying to learn how to do this.  The thing I wish I could have reported back to Sean is my disillusionment with the education non-profits that I thought were going to give me an entree to urban high school teaching circa 2015.  Because they depend on rich donors, they cut their jib to try to impress them during their fly-by visits, and that twists their organizational behavior in ways that, just like in the for-profit world, results in short-term thinking, impression management more than honest development, of pedagogy and of students.  

I'm retired from that second career now, but am currently trying to belly up to that public accounting bar with QuickBooks, to help institutions I'm involved with have intelligible plans for their operations and goals, and ways of getting there in a self-accountable way that has some what maybe we'd called consensus honesty about the challenges of an honest learning-curve.  Those aren't the only important metrics, certainly, but if you invest a lot of effort to accomplish something, you want to develop some sense of the shape/proportion of money costs over time.  

Dear Stephanie,

I was shocked and saddened to hear that Sean is no longer with us. When I think of Sean, I think of someone who cared deeply about other people and who fought to make the world a better place--a kind, warm-hearted man, who fought alongside other working people with integrity and vision. His death is both a personal loss and a loss to the movement. My heart is with you.

Even though I was never Sean's student at Harper College, I learned a great deal from him. I could count on him for advice that was grounded in the world as it is while still aiming at the world as we want it to be. And I could always count on him to make me laugh!

Sean was one of a kind--a steadfast mentor, comrade, and friend, to me and to many others. He will be missed deeply. Thank you for this beautiful memorial page in his honor and may he rest in power always.

Sean was bigger than life. He lit up the room with his smile. 

My condolences to his wife and family.

Twelve years ago, I was freshly graduated from high school - an utterly confused, enraged young man who didn't understand why there was so much suffering that stifled the world; why my often absent parents, despite working long hours, couldn't afford to pay for rent and groceries; why I was starved for both food and emotional connection; my disabled sister not having access to necessary healthcare; why my immigration status was a barrier in every possible step I wanted to take in my life; I often asked myself 'what is the point of living, when there's seemingly no way out of this suffering?'.

I didn't attend Harper College because I wanted to - it was a way to satisfy my immigrant parents' desire to continue my education, despite how difficult it was to sustain it: my parents scrounged every penny they could so I could purchase my books and tuition, and I'd been working full time for years to save as well (at the time, I wasn't aware of any scholarships that would allow for someone with my status to receive funds). In fact, my major was undeclared for nearly the entirety of my college years because I had no vision for graduating, nor what I could possibly do with a degree when I had zero prospects for using it in the professional field. Frankly, it was a burden having these expectations - they placed so much emphasis on learning, but I was completely lost and hopeless.

By happenstance, I chose to take Professor Noonan's class in sociology - I actually didn't know what sociology was, but it worked for my schedule, and it satisfied credit requirements.  It's funny to think now how transformative his classes were.

To clarify, I wasn't the best student - in his class, nor at any point in my life. I don't remember the letter grade I had in his class, but what I do remember are the lessons that I continue to carry with me, as well as the conversations we'd have during his open hours. His classes were instrumental first steps in exploring the concepts and language for understanding my own life, as well as the causes for so many of the woes in the world - notably, failed public institutions and systemic racism. When I think about college, his classes are what stand out - his passion, his dedication, his knowledge & ability to connect the immensity of social problems to our everyday lives.  

After many years of reflection, with the priming from his classes, from bearing witness to the 2017 May Day marches & the rise of a fascist presidency, along with the continued suffering of my family, I was called to action. I joined a local community-based organization to do my part in building a more beautiful future. As of today, I've been a community organizer for the past nearly four years. I've learned so much about the incredible history organizing has in this city and in the world. I can say, without a doubt in my mind, that Sean's class was the beginning of a new life for me - a life of purpose, of the good struggle, of the good fight.

Sean, thank you so, so much. You helped this young, hopeless man to do more than just live to forget and escape the material suffering of the world. Your classes inspired me to question and inquire more and gave direction to where I might begin to start.

Thank you. My deepest condolences to the Noonan family, and all the lives he has touched.