SPECIAL TRIBUTE: GEORGANNE HINCHLIFF EGGERS

Photo of Georganne courtesy of granddaughter Hillary Eggers Shedd

SPECIAL TRIBUTE: GEORGANNE HINCHLIFF EGGERS (1928 – 2021)

For the last 93 years, few people carried the torch for Rockford University and its city with as much fervor and with as much of a familial stake in their reciprocal success and growth than Georganne Hinchliff Eggers ’49, who passed away on May 28, 2021. Georganne’s great-granduncle, the Rev. Joseph Emerson, was key to ensuring that Rockford Female Seminary was located in Rockford. He was a primary author of the institution’s final Charter document and delivered its first commencement address. His brother, Ralph (Georganne’s great-grandfather), a then-emerging industrialist and friend of Abraham Lincoln, funded the seminary’s initial growth and led the board of trustees; he was also instrumental in founding Rockford’s Second Congregational Church. Wait Talcott, Georganne’s great-great-grandfather, served on the very first seminary board of trustees, and his daughter-in-law, Fanny Jones Talcott ’60, was a college trustee and namesake of the university’s esteemed Talcott Cross award. Including Georganne’s 25-year tenure as trustee, one or more of her family members has served on the board for 128 of the institution’s 175 years. But, life was more than just Rockford University for Georganne. She was a firebrand in the best sense of the word and threw herself headlong into any challenge or opportunity that allowed her to lead or contribute. As a toddler she accompanied her mother to volunteer at what is now the Goldie Floberg Center. It was there that she learned how to serve, extending that service into a decades-long board membership for the institution. Georganne never shied away from leveraging her education or her standing within the community to affect positive change. After one year at Rockford College, she went on to graduate from Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She married her childhood sweetheart, Gordon Garrett Eggers, and raised three accomplished children. Together Georganne and her adoring husband extended their benevolence in tandem throughout the region for 65 years, until Gordon’s death in 2016.

Along the way, Georganne became the first woman to chair the United Way Fund of Rockford. She also chaired the Rockford Community Trust (known today as the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois) and served for decades on the board of Keith Country Day School (founded by her great-aunt, Charlotte Belle Emerson Keith). When the Second Congregational Church was nearly destroyed by fire in December of 1979, Georganne helped lead the fund-drive to rebuild what her great-grandfather had worked so hard to establish.

Although Georganne was no stranger to public recognitions and awards, including the university’s Talcott Cross and the Rotary’s Service Above Self award, it was quiet affirmations in private conversation that she valued most.

Georganne is survived by her children, Gordon Garrett Eggers, Jr. (Rose), Edward Hinchliff Eggers (Vicki), and Elizabeth Eggers Lind (Robert), eight grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.