While working at the Egyptian Theatre Saturday night, NIU journalism professor Irvan Kummerfeldt, 55, suffered a massive heart attack and was taken to Kishwaukee Community Hospital where he died at about midnight.

“Irv was the unsung hero of the Egyptian,” his wife Barbara said. Mrs. Kummerfeldt said both she and her husband were volunteers at the theater. “It was something we did together, our own special thing,” she said.

The Kummerfeldts worked for the past ten years in leading the efforts to preserve the Egyptian, which underwent a $2.1 million restoration after DeKalb officials closed it down in 1977. “Without (Kummerfeldt’s) efforts it would not have happened,” Mrs. Kummerfeldt said.

She said Kummerfeldt previously served as president of the Egyptian Theatre board and currently was acting as secretary.

NIU Journalism Professor Hallie Hamilton said Kummerfeldt was very involved in the First Congregational United Church of Christ, 615 N. First St., where he served as moderator and as a trustee. At the time of his death he was a deacon in the church.

“He’ll be surely missed,” said Hamilton, who was on the committee which hired Kummerfeldt as a journalism professor in the early 1970s. “He certainly will be difficult to replace,” he said.

Kummerfeldt came to NIU in 1961 and worked for the NIU News Bureau, NIU’s public information office at that time. From 1967 to 1972 he served as news bureau manager.

When the bureau disbanded in the early 1970s, Kummerfeldt became an associate professor in the department of journalism, where he taught courses in reporting, newswriting and copyediting. From 1981 to 1987, he served as department chairman.

Before coming to NIU, Kummerfeldt worked as a reporter and editor for the Winona Daily News in Winona, Minn., from 1958 to 1961.

Kummerfeldt received his bachelor of arts degree in journalism and English at Cornell College, Mt. Vernon, Iowa, in 1955. He earned his master’s of science degree in 1956 from Columbia University’s Pulitzer School of Journalism in New York, and his doctorate degree in higher education administration and journalism in 1968 from Indiana University.

Mrs. Kummerfeldt said she and her husband lived in DeKalb for 27 years. They have a son, Kurt, 27, who is a musician in Los Angeles, Calif., and a daughter Krista, 24, who is a computer systems analysist in Rockford.

Mrs. Kummerfeldt said the family will make funeral arrangements today.