Former Alexian chief had vision for suburban health giant
Dean Grant, who rose from an ambulance driver to health care system CEO, is being remembered for leading the growth of the Alexian Brothers Health System into a major force in suburban health care.
Grant died May 10 in McHenry. He was 74.
"Dean was very instrumental behind the scenes in making an awful lot of things happen for the Alexian Brothers," said Brother Thomas Keusenkothen, former president and CEO of the Alexian Brothers Health System, who worked closely with Grant. "We talked about it being something like Mayo Clinic."
Grant, who retired in 2007 after a 36-year career with Alexian, administered a network of hospitals that over the years included facilities in Illinois, San Jose, California, Newark, New Jersey, and St. Louis, Missouri.
In 2003, Grant unveiled a $352-million expansion plan that included a new rehabilitation hospital and assisted-living center, as well as additions to Alexian Brothers Medical Center in Elk Grove Village and St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates.
Aspirations to become like the Mayo Clinic were invoked, as Alexian officials said patients would benefit from the addition of orthopedic, cancer, neuroscience and heart services.
"That sounds very grandiose, but we think that's possible," Grant said in 2003.
In 2015, Alexian merged with Adventist Midwest Health and became Amita Health, then the third-largest health system in Illinois.
Grant also was the driving force behind the decision to purchase the naming rights to the minor-league baseball stadium in Schaumburg, known for more than a decade as Alexian Field.
Grant's involvement with the medical community was a natural outgrowth of his family background. His father was a surgeon and his mother was a nurse. One of his first summer jobs as a high school student in New York was working as an ambulance driver.
Grant, who settled in North Barrington, came to the Chicago area as a student at the University of Chicago, where he studied for an MBA with an emphasis on hospital care.
His niece, Ingrid Kirschbaum, said Grant had many interests, including windsurfing and rollerblading.
"He was very funny. He liked politics and history and reading and music," she said.
He also enjoyed traveling, with trips that included a world health congress event in Bolivia and visits to China, Germany, Britain and much of Europe, as well as Vietnam, Thailand and parts of South America.
In 1981, he co-founded and served as the CEO of ExecuMed, a Schaumburg-based company that helped hospitals and private practices find and recruit the best-available physicians for their institutions. He was also a CEO of another company called Critical Care Inc.
In 1979, he wrote a book, "How to Negotiate Physicians' Contracts," and, in 1980, was the founder and publisher of American Nursing News, also known as "ANN-Midwest", a newspaper that reported on issues facing nurses.
His survivors include his wife, Jeanne Conklin Grant, whom he married in 1964, two children, Deanna and Donald, and five grandchildren.
Private services were held.