Campus building in Ill. named after Lech Walesa

[June 01, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- A campus building in Chicago now bears the name of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate whose Solidarity movement in the '80s helped trigger communism's collapse.

Former Polish President Lech Walesa (LEHK vah-WEHN'-sah) spoke Friday at a ceremony at Northeastern Illinois University where the classroom building was named in his honor.

The dedication of Lech Walesa Hall on Friday coincided with the 20th anniversary of the end of communism in Poland. Walesa joked that if his father came back to life and beheld some of the dramatic change in Eastern Europe, he would "die again of another heart attack."

The Chicago campus of the 12,000-student university is near a major Polish neighborhood. Many of the 400 people in the audience Friday were Polish immigrants.

[Associated Press]

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.