Remembering Prema Dua

PEORIA ― In mid-February, Illinois Central College lost one of its own when Prema Dua, a long-time professor at ICC, passed away while visiting her home country of India.

Born Prema Bhalla in Punjab, India on Aug. 16, 1944, she moved to the US in 1968 after receiving her master’s degree in anthropology from the University of Punjab. She lived much of her life in Peoria, where she raised three daughters with her husband.

Then in the spring of 1989, Dua began teaching at ICC as adjunct faculty. She then moved to a full-time teaching position in 1998. After teaching psychology and sociology at ICC for more than two decades, Dua retired at the end of 2012.

In late January, Dua transversed the Atlantic for one of her periodic trips to India. Within days of arriving, she was hospitalized for an unidentified lung infection that would lead to her passing.

“She was, I think, very proud of her heritage,” said ICC professor Stan Mendenhall. “She had family who was still in India; in fact, that’s where she was — she was visiting family when she got ill and ended up passing away.”

According to Edward Abplanalp, professor at ICC and close friend to Dua, this was a particularly saddening way for Dua to lose her life because she had retired a bit early so she could travel more.

Abplanalp will remember her for all of the small acts of kindness that she showed him over the years.

“When I first moved here, I needed to buy a lawn mower for my new house in Germantown Hills, so she and her husband brought over a lawn mower. It’s stuff like that … she was very giving,” said Abplanalp. “She was Hindu and believed in the divinity in everything. She believed every person was a god, which is pretty remarkable because there are some pretty shitty people out there, but she would try to see goodness in everybody.”

She will be missed by her friends and former colleagues in the Social Sciences department at ICC.

“She was very well known and very well liked [at ICC],” said Mendenhall. She was highly regarded in the department and was considered to be a very kind, caring person. And even though I didn’t know her well, I could just see that when I talked with her.”

“She was just here a few months ago for the winter potluck in the Social Sciences lounge,” said Abplanalp. “She was here for that and she was healthy and dynamic and laughing and all that … We just can’t believe she died. It’s heartbreaking.”