Delivering sad news today
February 17, 2021 1:44 PM

Dear Colleagues,

It is with great sadness that we must tell you that Greg Gulick, Interim Chief Information Officer, passed away yesterday afternoon from COVID-19.

As Interim CIO, Greg led Technology Services in supporting, growing and improving the massive IT infrastructure that is a foundation for virtually every aspect of our university operations and missions. He joined the university in 2003 and spent most of his Illinois career in the department he came to lead.

We have both had the privilege of working closely with Greg for a number of years in our respective roles. We do not have enough words or space here to adequately describe his integrity, his expertise and skill and his dedication to our students, staff and faculty and the broader community. But to those of us who worked with him in any capacity, it was the quiet and constant kindness he showed to every person in every circumstance on every occasion that earned him such enormous respect and trust. And those qualities were needed more than ever in this year at Illinois.

Greg’s empowering and compassionate leadership during this COVID-19 year is a major reason why our university was able to reopen this fall and bring our students back to campus. As an integral member of our university COVID-19 Steering Committee and part of our SHIELD team, Greg was instrumental in guiding our decisions and actions in directions that always put the well-being and needs of our students, staff and faculty first. The extensive and complex technological infrastructure necessary to support our academic and research missions, to sustain remote work, to tackle and overcome challenges in remote teaching and learning and to sustain our testing ecosystem that was developed and implemented by his colleagues in Technology Services in close collaborations of all campus units has been nothing short of transformational this year.

It is a simple and honest fact that Greg’s tireless efforts throughout this devastating pandemic have helped protect every single one of us living, studying and working here on the campus and in our local community. We owe him our gratitude.

We have lost a university leader, a compassionate colleague and a friend.

We ask that you keep Greg’s family in your hearts and minds today.

Sincerely,

Robert J. Jones
Chancellor

Andreas C. Cangellaris
Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost