DuPage mourns leading preservationist
Douglas Mains is being remembered this week for his passion for preservation that helped spare the Danada Forest Preserve in Wheaton and St. James Farm in Winfield from development.
One of DuPage County’s most influential environmentalists, the longtime Wheaton resident died Monday after a brief illness. He was 79.
Originally from Aurora, Mains was an orthopedic surgeon who is credited with performing the first total hip replacement in DuPage County in 1967 at Central DuPage Hospital.
A lover of horses who once, as a child, purchased his own while his parents were away, Mains stepped to the forefront of the environmental movement in the early 1970s when the former Wheaton estate and farm of Dan and Ada Rice was slated for development.
Before that could happen, though, Mains created and led a group called the Friends of Danada, which campaigned to save the farm that the DuPage County Forest Preserve District eventually bought in 1980.
In 1988, Brooks McCormick, founder of The Conservation Foundation, picked Mains to lead the nature conservancy organization.
“(Mains) was a religious man and he believed it is our responsibility to be good stewards of God’s creation,” said Brook McDonald, current president and CEO of the foundation. “Preservation was just a quality-of-life issue for Doug. He believed open space and lots of parks and clean air and water were just as important in a community as schools. libraries and good jobs.”
Several years later, Mains stepped in to help secure the forest preserve’s acquisition of the St. James Farm property.
Mains’ friendship with McCormick allowed him to act as intermediary in the purchase of the 590-acre site along Butterfield Road near Winfield for $43 million.
“Doug was instrumental in that project from the day he introduced me to (McCormick) and persuaded him to sell the farm to us, rather than a developer,” forest preserve President D. “Dewey” Pierotti Jr. said. “Doug was a hell of a guy and without him we would not have that 600-acre jewel we know as St. James Farm.”
The farm, which was owned by McCormick, includes woodlands, wetlands and prairie remnants.
As an orthopedic surgeon, Mains served on numerous boards, including the Central DuPage Health Foundation and the Presidential Advisory Council of Marianjoy Hospital. He was a member of the Chicago Regional Board of the Nature Conservancy and the Illinois Environmental Council.
A visitation, followed by a funeral service, will be held from 10 to 11 a.m. Saturday at Hultgren Funeral Home, 304 N. Main St., Wheaton. Interment will be private.
In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts may be directed to The Conservation Foundation, the DuPage Community Clinic, or Wheaton College.