Arlington Hts. remembers an early mover and shaker

Dea Jurco never saw her name dedicated on a building in Arlington Heights, but longtime residents say her handprint is everywhere.

Mrs. Jurco passed away July 29. The former Arlington Heights resident who lived in the village during its biggest growth years, from 1954 to 1972, was 85.

Village officials pointed to the Arlington Heights Memorial Library, the Arlington Heights Historical Museum, Faith Lutheran Church and the Arlington Heights Women's Club as a few of the causes which benefited from her active leadership.

"She was a force to be reckoned with," said Arlington Heights Village President Arlene Mulder. "There was nothing shy about her. If you wanted something done, you turned to Dea."

Mrs. Jurco was born outside Florence, Italy but moved to Chicago with her parents at the age of 3. She grew up in the city and eventually studied psychology at the University of Chicago.

She married Stephen Jurco in 1951, and the couple moved to Arlington Heights in 1954 when their son, Stephen, was born.

Mrs. Jurco began getting involved, her son says, in local civic affairs as an extension of her husband's prominent role as village attorney and founding member of the Village Bank & Trust.

"She was very much of a hands-on, can-do type of person," says her son, now a pathologist in Austin.

One of her main interests, friends say, was getting involved with the Arlington Heights Women's Club, whose charter dates back to the 19th century, and whose members are credited with forming the village's first library in one of their homes.

A former past president who went on to hold a state office was Florence Hendrickson, who was a close friend of Mrs. Jurco's and for whom the large meeting room at the Arlington Heights Memorial Library is named.

In the mid-1960s, Mrs. Jurco actively worked with Hendrickson and others to raise money to acquire land in the village's downtown historic neighborhood to build a larger library.

The current library opened in 1968, and has undergone two major expansions since then, but is considered to be one of the busiest libraries in the state.

Mrs. Jurco also became involved with the fledgling Arlington Heights Historical Society, joining it one year after it chartered, when she agreed to be the corresponding secretary.

During her leadership years in the mid- to late-1960s, the society acquired its first museum building, the Victorian-era Muller House once owned by soda pop baron F.W. Muller, before adding his factory and bottling warehouse, to serve as offices and meeting rooms.

Colleagues of Mrs. Jurco's in the Women's Club marveled at her energy and persistence in working to improve the village.

"She was a visionary," says Juanita Reinhard of Arlington Heights. "She could see things that needed to be done, but where most people would just sit there, she acted on them."

Mrs. Jurco was preceded in death by her husband, Stephen, and is survived by her son and daughter-in-law Deborah, and three grandchildren.

Services have been held.