Former Lake Zurich police chief Glogovsky dies

Because he had diabetes, James Glogovsky was unable to indulge in the doughnuts popularly linked to his profession.

"Now he can eat as much candy as he wants, and doughnuts; that gives me some peace," Glogovsky's daughter Margie O'Neill said Saturday.

The former Lake Zurich police chief died April 9 of congestive heart failure. He was 74.

The youngest of eight children, Glogovsky was born in North Chicago and was a member of North Chicago High School's basketball and baseball teams and later played semiprofessional baseball.

"Out of the six boys in the family, he probably was the nicest. He was nice to everyone he met," said his older brother, Joseph Glogovsky, of Zion.

Known as "Ski" or "Jim," he attended the Chicago Police Academy and began his law enforcement career in Waukegan as a patrolman and later a detective. In 1971 the family moved to Lake Zurich, where he became a patrolman and later chief with the Lake Zurich Police Department. He retired in 1991.

"The move was wonderful for us," O'Neill recalls. "Lake Zurich was much smaller back then; the fire department was all volunteer in those days. We'd be at a fish fry and the alarm would go off and half the people would leave."

During his tenure with the police department, Glogovsky played on the department's softball team and golf league. He also served on the Lake County Chiefs Association and was the organization's president.

"Dad had great camaraderie with his officers. He treated them like his own kids," O'Neill said.

"He was a very people-oriented person. He had a gift of working with a variety of people," she said, adding that her dad's legacy is the relationship he worked to build between young people and law enforcement.

In retirement he and his wife, Mary Kay, who died in 2010, split their time between Algonquin and Merritt Island, Fla. Margie said she was back from a two-week visit with her dad just two days before he died.

"He had a wonderful community down there, but he was also a very proud grandfather. He was at every concert, every soccer game," she said.

Glogovsky is survived by his daughters Margie (Tom) O'Neill, Karan Miller, Jamie (Fred) Hoeft and Nancy Glogovsky, grandchildren James (Heather) Hoeft, Kathy and Nancy O'Neill, and Jordan and Nick Miller; his brother Joseph (Carol) Glogovsky, and many other nieces, nephews and cousins. He was preceded in death by his father, Stephan and mother Pauline (nee Drinka); brothers Thomas, George, Steve (Donna) and Frank (Kay); and sisters Elizabeth (Richard) Redmer and Mary (Paul) Pobicki.

Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. April 21 at Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 415 S. Buesching Road, Lake Zurich. Prayers will be said at 9:30 a.m. April 22 at the funeral home and a funeral Mass will follow at 10 a.m. at St. Francis de Sales Catholic Church, 33 S. Buesching Road, Lake Zurich. Inurnment will be private.