Former Lincoln-Way Superintendent Lawrence Wyllie Dies at 88
Wyllie led the district from 1989 to 2013, expanding it from one school to four, before federal fraud charges were filed and later dismissed.
By Marco Alvarez ·
Lawrence Wyllie, who led Lincoln-Way High School District 210 for 24 years and later faced federal fraud charges over the handling of district finances, died Oct. 25. He was 88. The DuPage County coroner's office confirmed his death.
Wyllie took the helm in New Lenox in 1989 and retired in 2013. During that period the district grew from one high school to four. Lincoln-Way split into Central and East in the late 1990s. After East opened, enrollment kept climbing and the schools filled up. Wyllie backed a $225 million referendum to build two more high schools. A community group argued the district should build one and hold off on a fourth. Wyllie pushed for both, and the measure passed.
Construction proceeded on the assumption that the area's population would keep growing. It did not. The district issued $204 million in bonds between 2006 and 2009 to fund the work. The new schools drained cash reserves. The district later landed on the state's financial watch list, and the school board closed Lincoln-Way North High School in Frankfort to cut costs.
Federal prosecutors indicted Wyllie in 2017, alleging he misused millions in bond funds and concealed the district's true financial condition from the public. The charges were dropped in 2024 after court filings described undisclosed health problems. Prosecutors and defense lawyers reported in January 2023 that Wyllie's health had declined and that he could not meaningfully participate in his own defense. He lived in Naperville at the time.
Wyllie never spoke publicly about the case. He grew up in the western suburbs, played and coached at Downers Grove North, and starred for the Northern Illinois University basketball team in the 1950s. He was inducted into the Downers Grove North athletic hall of fame as a player and a coach. A former nun with the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart in Frankfort said he would stop in for communion before most of the sisters woke.
Wyllie was 88 when he died Oct. 25.
