Sugar Grove trustee Bohler dies
Robert Bohler loved Sugar Grove so much, he sat through 18 years of twice-a-month village board meetings as a village trustee, slogging through the minute details of developments and budgets, to make sure the village was the best it could be.
"He always put the village first," President Sean Michels said Monday about Bohler, who died Sunday. "He wanted to make sure the village looked good today and looked good 20 years from tomorrow."
Bohler, 64, died Sunday. He had been ill with cancer, and recently suffered a broken hip.
Michels served with Bohler all those years. He recalled that Bohler was particularly dogged about having real estate developers stick to the architectural standards the village board had set. That meant they had to use brick on the front of their stores and houses, to avoid having everything be the less-expensive stucco or vinyl siding, Michels said. He pushed for including more landscaping, and wider streets than developers wanted to build.
Bohler also had a reputation as an excellent cook and baker. "He made an awesome apple pie," Michels recalled of the years Bohler won the pie-baking contest at the Sugar Grove Farmers Market. He spent his final months teaching friends and family, including fellow Trustee Mari Johnson, his recipes and techniques.
Bohler was the village board's liaison to the Sugar Grove Economic Development Commission. In a December interview, Bohler said he was particularly proud of the development of the shopping center at Route 47 and Galena Boulevard. It contains a Jewel-Osco store, a McDonald's restaurant, banks, small stores and an Ace Hardware.
As for his attention to the details: "A lot of the processes we went through nobody had gone through before. It was quite an undertaking to get things right. You only get one chance to get it right," he said. The population nearly tripled during Bohler's 27 years living there.
Bohler was also president of the Sugar Grove Lions Club. As such, he was the man who made the fireworks happen at the annual Corn Boil in July.
"It always seemed to fall on the weekend of his wife's birthday," Michels said, but Bohler would be out there, setting up the site, creating the musical playlist and overseeing the show. He also raised money for the show.
Village flags were lowered to half-staff Monday morning in Bohler's honor.
A wake will be conducted from 3:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at Healy Chapel, 370 Division Drive, Sugar Grove. The funeral is at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Katharine Drexel Catholic Church, 8S055 Dugan Road, Sugar Grove.
Survivors include his wife, Sandy; their children, Corey, Adam and Brooke; and a granddaughter.