Lampinen was always a loyal Waukeganite, even when he moved away

A Waukegan native who witnessed Lake County’s growth from the days of horse-drawn milk wagons to suburban sprawl has passed away.

Walter “Barney” Lampinen died Friday, Aug. 26, at the age of 84. He was raised on Waukegan’s southwest side, the youngest child of immigrant parents who lived in Waukegan’s thriving Finnish community.

Lampinen attended Waukegan public schools — his first three years were taught in Finnish — and eventually served in World War II, in the Pacific Theater. He spoke English but never lost the Finnish language he first spoke.

After returning from service, he met Patricia Holmquist on a blind date, and they married in 1948.

Though Lampinen had been drafted by the Cleveland Indians to play baseball, and briefly played in one of its affiliates, he gave it up after he married in order to provide for his family.

Lampinen turned to one of the iconic businesses in Waukegan, the Cooperative Trading Co. Dairy, known locally as the Co-Op Dairy, which in the early days delivered milk by horse-drawn wagons down the city’s alleys.

“It was country then, with gravel roads,” remembers Waukegan Alderman Larry TenPas. “The horse barn was in back of the dairy.”

By the late 1940s, when Lampinen joined the business, they were delivering milk in trucks.

His daughter Linda sometimes rode with her father as he traveled his route in Highland Park and other North suburbs.

“There were no seats in the front of the truck, you had to stand,” Linda Lampinen said. “He must have made hundreds of stops, it seemed like every house.”

Lampinen worked several jobs to support his family. He drove a Chicago Yellow Cab at night and took auto mechanic jobs on the side. He eventually became manager of the dairy and ultimately of its tire center and automotive service stations.

Gus Petropoulos, who co-owned Petropoulos Brothers Appliances in Gurnee, persuaded Lampinen to change careers and come manage their store. He did and wound up staying more than 20 years.

Lampinen retired in 1988 after his wife’s passing. When he remarried in 1989, he and his wife, Patricia, moved to Tampa; however, they continued to stay in touch with his six children and their families — and Waukegan.

“Though my father moved out of Waukegan decades ago, he never stopped being a Waukeganite,” says his oldest son, John, a senior vice president of Paddock Publications and editor of the Daily Herald. “That was as deeply ingrained in him as his Finnish heritage and his love of baseball.”

His children credit their father with instilling a love of education and lifelong learning, and the value of hard work.

“My dad was part of a rough generation that was born of immigrants, steeled by the Great Depression and gathered by World War II,” John Lampinen said. “That environment taught him that life could be a hard place and that you had to work hard and be strong to get through it. And he did. He worked hard his entire life, the epitome of the American work ethic.”

Besides his son and daughter, Lampinen is survived by his children Sharon (Mauricio) Rojo, Judith (Tim) Miller, Joseph (Cheryl) Lampinen and Dr. James (Stephanie) Lampinen, as well as three grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 3350 N. Delaney Road, Waukegan.