Buffalo Grove parade organizer ‘loved people’

Life stories

By Marni Pyke

mpyke@dailyherald.com

Not one for small gestures, Joe Tenerelli surprised his family and friends by showing up at his 90th birthday party in style.

“He was never a jeans kind of guy,” daughter Carol Ann Kunz said. “He came in his tuxedo.”

That panache played out over the 25 years Mr. Tenerelli organized the annual Buffalo Grove Days Parade, growing the event from 44 units to more than 100.

“He always took pride in that parade. It was his baby,” former Village President Elliott Hartstein said Saturday.

Mr. Tenerelli, 90, died July 31.

A longtime village resident, Mr. Tenerelli grew up on Chicago’s West Side and had a career as a research and development engineer, also serving as the president of VAMCO Credit Union.

He became involved with Buffalo Grove after his second marriage to then-Deputy Clerk Carol Hennenfent. Mr. Tenerelli was the village treasurer and a member of various boards.

His involvement in the parade started in the 1980s. “I went in there cold, I never ran a parade in my life and I was kind of overwhelmed,” he told the Daily Herald in 2009. “But I got it done.”

Civic leaders said Mr. Tenerelli tended to every detail of the parade, from bringing in new marching bands to deciding the order in which floats went.

“He arranged it the way he wanted it to be arranged and no amount of begging could change his mind,” Buffalo Grove Days Committee co-chair Paulette Greenberg said.

“He was gruff but he was a marshmallow on the inside.”

When Mr. Tenerelli retired in 2009 from parade planning, he did so in style, leading the event as grand marshal in a horse and carriage with his great-grandchildren.

“Dad was never a person who could sit still,” Kunz said. “He never liked sitting idly — being involved in the parade brought him such joy. He loved people, he loved helping people.”

Tenerelli also was proud of the fact he refinished his kitchen at age 88.

“He was very handy. You name it, he could do it,” Kunz said.

And at age 89, Tenerelli still would walk over to the village hall and chat with staff members, Village President Jeffrey Braiman said.

“He was very active and sharp as a tack,” Braiman said.

The Buffalo Grove Days Committee plans a tribute to Tenerelli at this year’s parade on Sept. 4.

Visitation will be 3-8 p.m. Friday, Aug. 12, at Kolssak Funeral Home, 189 S. Milwaukee Ave., Wheeling. A Mass will be 10 .m. Saturday, Aug. 13, at St. Mary Church, 10 N. Buffalo Grove Road, Buffalo Grove.