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Elk Grove Village mourns dedicated educator, park board member

By Eileen O. Daday

Daily Herald correspondent

A photo of Patricia Clifford hangs inside the Pavilion Aquatics Center in recognition of her role with the Elk Grove Park District board of commissioners, which developed the amenity in 1994.

It turns out to be one of many village landmarks that Clifford had a hand in developing.

The former park commissioner and longtime principal with Elk Grove Township Elementary District 59 passed away on May 19. She was 82.

Nancy Czarnik, a former Elk Grove village trustee whose husband, Frank, served with Clifford on the park board, remembered Clifford was an early proponent of the Jack A. Claes Community Recreation Center, despite complaints about its costs.

"The Pavilion proved to be something the village needed, and grew to love," Czarnik said. "Pat was very dynamic and very active on the park board. You always knew you could count on her to follow through on things."

Current park officials credit Clifford and her park board colleagues with helping to develop Elk Grove's award-winning park district, which continues to draw families to the community.

"Patricia Clifford helped shape the park district in many ways, including helping the district win the Gold Medal award," says Tom Busby, executive director of the Elk Grove Park District.

He pointed to such projects as Fox Run Golf Course, Fountain Square Park, the Jack A. Claes Pavilion Recreation Center, and Elk Grove's community athletic fields, located in Itasca.

"Under her leadership, in 1990, the district also established its first before and after school care program at Byrd School," Busby added.

Caring for the needs of children came naturally to Clifford. She was a young mother of six children when her husband, William - one of the first full time firefighters in Elk Grove - succumbed to leukemia in 1972. At the time, her children ranged in age from 16 to 4.

Needing to support her family, Clifford returned to college and completed the two years she needed to earn her degree in education.

By 1974, she got her first teaching job with Schaumburg Township Elementary District 54, where she remained for the next 10 years. Midway during her time there, Clifford began to study for a graduate degree in administration.

In 1984, she joined District 59, winning her first job as principal at Brentwood School in Des Plaines. She would go on to lead Robert Frost School in Mount Prospect four years later.

Clifford finished her career at Juliette Low School in Arlington Heights, where she guided students and staff through a nearly $8 million renovation, back in the late 1990s, that was so complete that the entire school had to be relocated to Ridge School in Elk Grove for the school year.

"In my opportunities to work with Pat, I found that she was a very caring and dedicated educator, who did all she could to support students and staff," says Tom Luedloff, associate superintendent of District 59.

Her legacy as a teacher and community volunteer continues with her family. Her oldest daughter, Joanne Cooke, is a teacher at Windsor School in Arlington Heights, while her husband has served on the Elk Grove park board for nearly 20 years.

"Both my parents instilled in us a strong sense of volunteering," Joanne Cooke says. "My mother never thought she was doing anything special. She just felt deeply about wanting to help make Elk Grove a great community to raise a family."

Services have been held.

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