Kamala Harris has little-known childhood connection to Illinois; family friend recounts memories from her year in Champaign-Urbana

Four former U.S. presidents have called Illinois home: Barack Obama, Ronald Reagan, Ulysses S. Grant, and Abraham Lincoln. If presumptive Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris is elected to the nation’s top office this November, her name would become the fifth on this list.

When Harris was just a toddler, her family moved to Champaign, where they lived for a year in the late 1960s. Her parents, fresh out of their Ph.D. programs, had both secured jobs at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. It was in Champaign that Harris’ younger sister, Maya, was born.

Urbana resident Diane Gottheil, 85, recalled fondly her friendship with Harris’ parents during their year in Illinois. Gottheil was finishing up her Ph.D. in political science when they joined the university’s community in 1966, bringing a 2-year-old Harris in tow.

Gottheil said that she viewed Harris’ mother Shyamala Gopalan as a major role model, admiring both her work as a medical researcher and her passion for civil rights. Gopalan died of cancer in 2009.

“Shyamala was brilliant, she was passionate, she was committed to doing good,” Gottheil said. “That never changed for her, and I think it’s something that she certainly passed down to her daughters. High achievement and activism.”

Since launching her bid for the presidency on July 21 when President Joe Biden stepped down from consideration, Harris has received an outpouring of support from key Illinois Democrats.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker has regularly appeared on lists of names floated by commentators and news outlets as potential running mates for Harris, though he has continued to decline to comment on whether he is under consideration. Pritzker, along with all of Illinois’ congressional Democrats, has expressed support for Harris’ campaign.

On July 24, the Democratic Party of Illinois announced that their delegates had unanimously voted to endorse Harris as the nominee. Harris is set to return to Illinois next month for the Democratic National Convention, which will take place from Aug. 19 to 22 in Chicago; however, her formal nomination will likely occur virtually prior to Aug. 7.

“(Democratic Party of Illinois) Chair (Elizabeth “Lisa”) Hernandez couldn’t be more proud that our next president has central Illinois ties,” a Democratic Party of Illinois spokeswoman said Friday. “Vice President Harris comes from a long line of past and present Democrats who have spent time in our great state and gone on to champion working families not only here but across the nation.”

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign spokesperson Christopher Harris confirmed on Friday that both of Harris’ parents were employed at the university for a year: Harris’ father Donald as an economics professor, and Gopalan as a cancer researcher.

Jayne Deluce, president and CEO of the regional tourism office Experience Champaign-Urbana, said that Harris’ candidacy has provided a “terrific opportunity” to celebrate her family’s connections to the University of Illinois and the Champaign-Urbana community.

“We are excited that a presidential candidate has ties to the CU area and how this continues the tradition of other presidential ties to Illinois,” Deluce wrote in an email to the Tribune. “Also, as we develop the Champaign County African American Heritage Trail, this would be another story to share as part of the rich history that shapes this place we call home!”

Diane Gottheil met Gopalan and Donald Harris through her husband Fred Gottheil, who was also a professor in the economics department of UIUC. The two couples became fast friends, she said, bonding over their experiences as young parents and academics.

Their friendship was also based on shared political values. Advocacy in support of the civil rights movement and against the war in Vietnam brought their circle of friends in Urbana-Champaign even closer together, according to Gottheil.

“It was a very political time in our history, even more so than now,” Gottheil said.

Harris’ official White House biography describes how her parents used to bring her to civil rights marches in a stroller throughout the 1960s.

Harris’ father, 85, has retired from teaching at Stanford University, though he still holds the title of professor emeritus. Her sister Maya Harris is a lawyer and political advocate who has assisted Harris during past campaigns.

Though Harris’ parents soon moved on from Champaign to teach and research at other universities in the Midwest, including Northwestern University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Gottheil said that she and her husband remained in touch with them for years after.

The last time that Gottheil recalled speaking to Gopalan was after Harris was elected district attorney of San Francisco. Gottheil called to offer her congratulations.

Though she only knew the current vice president when she was “such a little girl,” Gottheil said that she has enjoyed watching her trajectory over the years, and added that she was thrilled to see her step into the role of Democratic presidential candidate.

“I certainly can see her mom in her, there’s no question about that,” Gottheil said. “It doesn’t surprise me that she had such an amazing daughter.”