By james art 
Dr. Wally Deleki – who has run the Gilbert public schools for 20 years as his chief during huge growth – died on January 20 after a short illness. He was 78.
D -Deleki was the head of GPS from 1981 to 2001, during which he opened 20 schools in Gilbert and Mesa and introduced numerous new programs in the field.
“Dr. Deleki represents everything that is great for Gilbert public schools, “said GPS head D -R Shane McCord. “There has never been or there will be a better and more loved man from Wally.
“He was both the pride of GPS and the city of Gilbert, and a very dear friend I loved very much. We have lost an icon that will never be compared. “
He was also a dedicated family man who was going through the world wide.
“We only had a marriage to stories,” said his widow Nancy, with whom he raised their three sons during their 47-year marriage. “We both always talked about how blessed we were … He was my best friend and I was his and we just had a wonderful, wonderful relationship.”
“And he was just a great dad for our boys, and then his pride and joy were when he became a dad or grandfather.”
Nancy met her husband when she worked as a special director of ED in Yuma, where he became assistant chief in 1975.
“He was my boss for two years. And then he moved to the high school neighborhood in Yuma and we got married afterwards, “she said. “He didn’t control me when I was his wife. I wouldn’t allow that.
“But he was also a great boss and I know that the stands I saw on Facebook and the like. I worked for him for two years, so I can testify to all these things. “
Their lives consisted of hard work, but also many trips – including Christmas family visits to Florida, visits to summer families to Michigan and visits to at least 60 countries.
“I worked with him while I know him,” says Dr. Brad Barrett, who has been a friend of Dr. Deleki for more than 50 years and shared with him a parallel career in the Eastern Valley education management.
Barrett, who then replaced D -D, GPS when he retired, said his transition “was like a loss of a family member.”
“Here’s how close and difficult it is to make the void, the hole he leaves in our friendship and in the community,” Barrett said. “It’s just hard to stick. It will be heavily missed. “
Katie Tilke, a former member of the Municipal Council, who has been the CEO of the Gilbert Commercial Chamber for more than two decades, called D -R Deleki at “Law of Education, Exturdinar”.
“There is no doubt that residents and businesses were flocking to Gilbert because of the excellent schools under Wally’s leadership, making Gilbert the fastest growing community in the country in the 90s and 2000s,” she said.
“He was a catalyst and a reliable partner as we moved with increasing pain and a variety of opinions on how to achieve all this.”
On all the accounts, D -Deleki did – and was easily kept with friends.
“I could say that Wally was a very dear friend of mine, but then half of Gilbert would probably say the same,” said Kayla Kolar, CEO of House of Buge in Messa and former CEO of HD South: The Museum’s House of Museum Gilbert.
“He was just one of those types of people who would handle you immediately.”
She recalled the exceptional memory of D -R Deleki, which probably helped him to nourish these friendships. He maintained that it was a gift.
“He will meet you once and you can tell him your whole life story and include the names of your family, your date of birth and everything else, and Wally will remember it forever more and will recite it back next time you He saw, Kolar recalled. “Wally made people feel special, and his gift made him a treasure.
“He has been a legend in Gilbert for many years,” says Kolar, who met with former mayor of Gilbert Dale Halock, Barrett and Dr. Deleki a month for lunch.
“He has never missed anything at home,” his widow said. “And he could pull the things he hoped he would forget, but he never did it.”
Asked what he deleted him with D -R, Barrett has a similar answer.
“Wally has a leadership style that everyone is his personal friend,” he said. “So it works with me and him. I was a little closer to him because we worked together officially. “
“He was a very open, very good teacher, a wonderful leader and our philosophies were so close to each other that it was easy to work with him and we have so many memories in those 50 years from where we worked and the wonderful times we had with each other. “
Both deleki and Barrett start working together in public schools in Mesa, after which Deleki moves to Yuma to become an assistant director while Barrett becomes an assistant director at Mountain View High.
Then they both joined GPS as assistant superiors. When D -Dleki became a GPS head, Barrett holds the same title in the Kirine School Quarter.
They later work together at the University of North Arizona, after which they retired. D -Deleki was a professor in the NAU educational leadership program.
D -deleki was also a joker, Barrett said.
“He would do things to disturb you everywhere, and therefore people did things to disturb him,” Barrett said. “So, he created a culture in the school neighborhood, a fun culture to be able to avoid the jokes he will pull us.
“And none of us had the patience or talent to make an equal joke, so we just gave up and left it great at our expense.”
After his retirement about one and a half, Dr. Deleki was happy that he was a resource for school administrators in Arizona, Nancy Deleki said.
“He continued with the dissertation committees and similar things for his students, and he was indeed a mentor of many, many warders in the country who would call him.”
The leadership of Dr. Deleki spilled to the community in other ways. He served on board HD South; He was also the founder of Emcee of the Gilbert Community Perfect Awards for two decades and at one point he was awarded as Mr. Gilbert. “He has also completed class 2 class 2.
Both perfection awards and Gilbert’s leadership are governed by the Gilbert House.
During his passage, Dr. Deleki was a 12-year-old member of the Otto and Nile Foundation, which finances a wide range of programs in the Eastern Valley and took advantage of the philanthropy of early agriculture in Gilbert.
Greg Bamford, secretary/cashier of the Foundation’s Council, said he had known D -Deleki for 40 years and considered him a friend. “He was an exceptional person and very deep in his work,” Bamford said.
The board deals with educational subsidies, and Dr. Deleki was the person for things related to the topic. Recently last week he called the board meeting.
“We wanted Wally to remain active with his work on the board with the Neely Foundation for the future. It is sad to understand that he will no longer be able to do it, “Bamford said. “This is a great loss.”
D -Deleki survived his widow Nancy; sons Alex, Jacob and Abram; All three grandchildren and one granddaughter.
The funeral liturgy is scheduled for 10:00 am.