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Wheeling honors memory of Trustee Bob Heer

Wheeling officials dedicated their first village board meeting of 2015 to honoring longtime Trustee Bob Heer, who died on Christmas Eve only months before his 20th anniversary on the board.

The board room Monday echoed with the memory of Heer's wake last week, when about 3,000 mourners waited in line for nearly three hours to pay their respects to the 58-year-old retired Buffalo Grove police officer.

Heer's son, Nick, said that while he knew his father had touched many lives in Wheeling and Buffalo Grove, it was still a surprise to see the effects of that so tangibly.

"He loved being a police officer to help people, to help the community," Nick Heer said. "He really was a generous person. I don't think any of us ever imagined that level of support."

As Monday's meeting began, Bob Heer's seat on the dais was marked with a wreath, candle and purple bunting. When the village clerk's roll call reached Heer's name, board members and the audience stood for a moment of silence.

Afterward, Nick Heer was presented with his father's name plate.

A similar tribute took place Monday before the Buffalo Grove village board.

"It was clear that through his service in Buffalo Grove and as an elected official in Wheeling and his involvement with his church, Bob touched many many lives," Buffalo Grove Village President Jeffrey Braiman said. "We're all better as a result."

Braiman noted Heer's distinguished service as a youth officer at Buffalo Grove High School, and his continued service at the high school after his retirement from the police force in 2012.

It was Heer's laughter and gregariousness that fellow Wheeling trustees and Village President Dean Argiris chose to remember Monday.

Argiris recalled that he and Heer first bonded as fathers whose daughters were involved in cheerleading.

As recent Facebook postings attest, even those who came to know Heer in their youth were as aware of his commitment to everyone's well-being as adults.

"If he liked you, you trusted him, and he guided those kids," Argiris said.

He also thanked Heer's widow, Cathy, for having allowed him to dedicate so much of his time to the community.

Trustee Mary Krueger, halfway through her first term on the board, said the best favor Argiris had provided her was seating her next to Heer on the dais.

"Since there will never be another Bob, I will try to emulate his quiet, subtle form of politics and step up the humor at this end of the dais because laughter is the best medicine," she said.

Other trustees thanked Heer for showing them how to make an important responsibility like theirs both meaningful and fun.

"He would take a very serious moment, a very solemn moment and put his own touch on it," Trustee Bill Hein said. "Bob was very loving, giving and respected."

Former Wheeling village president Greg Klatecki and current Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer also spoke of Heer's positive contributions.

"You know, when you think about Bob, you have to smile," Helmer said. "He was a man for all seasons, because he was a man for all reasons."

Heer had hoped to continue serving on the board by winning another term in the April 7 election. But after returning home from surgery for a hernia just before Christmas, he suffered a massive stroke and collapsed.

• Staff writer Steve Zalusky contributed to this story

Longtime Wheeling Trustee Bob Heer dies

Wheeling trustee had same approach to politics, policing

  Prospect Heights Mayor Nick Helmer adds his own remembrances of longtime Wheeling Trustee Bob Heer at Monday's Wheeling village board meeting. Officials honored Heer's decades of service as both an elected official and Buffalo Grove police officer. Eric Peterson/epeterson@dailyherald.com
Bob Heer
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