Palatine Dist. 15 board honors Bokor with moment of silence, plaque

Peggy Babcock, her voice full of emotion, asked for the roll call.

Babcock. "Here." Ekeberg. "Here." Herr. "Here." Iannuzzelli. "Here." Seiffert. "Here." Sriram. "Here."

Then Bokor - and a moment of silence. It was the last time his name would be called before the start of a Palatine Township Elementary District 15 board meeting.

Rich Bokor, a former Fremd High School history teacher and track coach who served almost six years on the board, died Jan. 4 from colon cancer.

Superintendent Scott Thompson and Bokor's colleagues on the board this week paid tribute to his teaching and coaching career with a plaque presented to his wife, Ann, a retired District 15 teacher and administrator.

Extending from the plaque was a replica Converse athletic shoe, the kind "Rich used when he ran," Thompson said.

"You went the extra distance for children," Thompson read from the inscription.

"You daily walked alongside children," Thompson continued. "You taught them how to walk and, by your example, where to walk. Your footprints will be the steppingstones to their future."