Henry Soles Jr. (August 17, 1935 – January 18, 2018) was a minister based out of

Wheaton, Illinois Wheaton is a suburban city in Milton and Winfield Townships and is the county seat of DuPage County, Illinois. It is located approximately west of Chicago. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 52,894, which was estimated ...

, who served as the Senior chaplain for the Chicago Bulls for more than 30 years. His groundbreaking work in DuPage County helped establish more affordable housing options.

Early life

Soles was born in

Anniston, Alabama Anniston is the county seat of Calhoun County in Alabama and is one of two urban centers/principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2010 census, the population of the city was 23,106. Acco ...

, but was raised in Plainfield, New Jersey. There he attended Plainfield High School, and later received degrees from Manhattan Bible Institute and

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. He spent the early part of his adult life as a minister and journalist in

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

. There he married his wife, Effie, who is also an ordained minister.

Ministry

Professional sports

The Soles family moved to Wheaton, Illinois, in 1969 after he accepted a job at Urban Ministries Inc. in Calumet City. His ministry in professional sports began in 1973 when he was asked to lead chapel services for the

Chicago Bears The Chicago Bears are a professional American football team based in Chicago. The Bears compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) North division. The Bears have won nine NF ...

. Later in the decade he began to work with the

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. The team is owned by Jerry Reinsdorf, and p ...

, and eventually left the Bears to focus on his new role. His experience with both teams led to him creating an organization in 1979 designed specifically to serve the spiritual needs of professional athletes, Intersports Associates Inc. That is also the year that he got the idea to lead chapel services as a volunteer for the Bulls. He approached former Bulls forward Dwight Jones with the idea. The Bulls approved of Soles as chaplain, and he then led those services, which were open to visiting teams as well, for the next three decades.

Ministry in the community

Soles' ministry was not confined to

Chicago Stadium Chicago Stadium was an indoor arena in Chicago, Illinois, that opened in 1929, closed in 1994 and was demolished in 1995. It was the home of the National Hockey League's Chicago Blackhawks and the National Basketball Association's Chicago Bulls. ...

, and later the

United Center United Center is an indoor arena on the Near West Side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. It is home to the Chicago Bulls of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and the Chicago Blackhawks of the National Hockey League (NHL). It is named ...

. He led a Bible study in downtown Chicago, a ministry for ex-convicts, and another ministry titled Gospel Outreach, to serve young people in a Chicago housing project. As a resident of Wheaton, the DuPage County seat, he was heavily involved in the community where he resided. The Soles family was part of the ministerial staff at DuPage AME Church in Lisle, IL, and he also made a huge impact in DuPage County government. Soles helped found the Community Housing Association of DuPage. Through that organization hundreds of affordable housing units were built in the affluent county. He also served for 10 years as the chairman of the DuPage Housing Authority. His work around the

Chicago metropolitan area The Chicago metropolitan area, also colloquially referred to as Chicagoland, is a metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. Encompassing 10,286 sq mi (28,120 km2), the metropolitan area includes the city of Chicago, its suburbs and hi ...

has earned him in several honors, including Wheaton's 2001 Adult Good Citizen award, and the Serenity House in

Arlington Heights, IL Arlington Heights is a municipality in Cook County with a small portion in Lake County in the U.S. state of Illinois. A suburb of Chicago, it lies about northwest of the city's downtown. Per the 2020 Census, the population was 77,676. Per the ...

giving him their Man of the Year award.

Books

Soles edited two books which were published by

Tyndale House Tyndale House is a Christian publisher in Carol Stream, Illinois. History Tyndale was founded in 1962 by Kenneth N. Taylor in order to publish his paraphrase of the Epistles, which he had composed while commuting to work at Moody Press in C ...

, ''The Soul Food New Testament'' and the ''Children of Color Bible''.

Death and Illness

Soles battled Alzheimer's disease late in his life. He died on January 18, 2018 in Naperville, Illinois of aspiration pneumonia.

References

External links

DuPage AME Church Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Soles, Henry American chaplains Chicago Bulls personnel 1935 births 2018 deaths Plainfield High School (New Jersey) alumni Writers from Plainfield, New Jersey People from Anniston, Alabama Writers from Wheaton, Illinois Rutgers University alumni Journalists from New Jersey Writers from Alabama