Charles Mingo (IL ’93), a former Chicago, Ill. and Gary, Ind. middle- and high-school principal who believed that "all children can learn, regardless of economic and social deprivations" died February 9, 2012. At Chicago’s Jean Baptiste DuSable High School, where he received his Milken Educator Award, Mingo's innovations included redesigning the school's structure, dividing it into ten houses, each with 125 students and six teachers who remained together throughout all four years of high school. This significantly enhanced the academic achievement of the students, most of whom lived in a public housing complex across from the school. The stellar teaching gene runs in the Mingo family, as Charles Mingo also got the privilege of seeing his daughter Nathalie Mingo’s (IL ’04) Milken Educator Award notification. He attended the event in a tuxedo.
