Remembering notable people who died this year in Lake County

We said goodbye to several notable Lake County residents in 2016. They left indelible marks on their communities through impressive accomplishments and dedicated public service.

The list includes a few local officials, a longtime Catholic priest, environmental and education activists, a business owner and a child entertainer-turned-pioneering medical professional.

Bill Armstrong

Mettawa Trustee Bill Armstrong, who was known for his trademark black cowboy hat and being kind and humble, died Oct. 21. He was 67.

During his tenure on the village board, he regularly sought feedback from residents before forming his opinion on an issue.

“He had a very engaging personality,” former Mayor Jess Ray said. “And he always had on a smile on his face. It made it easy for people to talk to him.”

Voters elected Ray as mayor - and Armstrong and John Maier as trustees - in 2009. They had formed a slate called the Mettawa Transparency Party, all challengers who had campaigned against the village's handling of the Costco development on village-owned land.

Armstrong was re-elected to a second term in 2013.

He was born in Libertyville and attended Libertyville High School. He graduated from Northwestern University.

Armstrong also was the former chairman of the COVE (Children's Outreach and Vocational Education) Alliance, a nonprofit group that provides housing and education for orphaned and poor children in Uganda. He was a member of the Libertyville Masonic Lodge.

Frank Belmont Jr.

Frank Belmont Jr., who led Carmel Catholic High School's boys varsity basketball teams to the Sweet 16 in the Illinois High School Association's tournament in 1985 and '86, died April 23. He was 63.

“A lot of (the current success) had to do with his belief academics can enhance athletics,” said Andy Bitto, Carmel's athletic director.

After graduating from Carmel in 1971, Belmont attended Southwest Minnesota State University, where he played basketball. Belmont returned to Carmel in 1978 as a teacher and assistant basketball coach.

He was elevated to head boys basketball coach in 1980. He also served as the school's athletic director.

Belmont, who lived in Gurnee, left Carmel for the old Waukegan West High School in 1987, where he was a social studies teacher and boys varsity hoops coach. He remained the basketball coach when the two Waukegan high schools combined in 1990, and resigned five years later.

He was enshrined in the sports halls of fame at Carmel and Southwest Minnesota State.

Richard “Rich” Bilisko

Retired police officer and longtime Wauconda Fire District board President Richard “Rich” Bilisko was remembered as a dedicated public servant and a caring man, especially when it came to children. Bilisko, 70, of Wauconda, died May 29.

Born in Chicago, Bilisko spent 27 years as a police officer. His law-enforcement career started as a Wauconda Police Department auxiliary officer. He moved to the Hawthorn Woods Police Department and to the Lake County sheriff's office, where he worked for 20 years.

Bilisko spent much of his time in uniform working as a juvenile officer. He served with many professional associations for juvenile officers, including as president of the Lake County Juvenile Officers Association and the Illinois Juvenile Officers Association.

He also worked on a children's justice task force with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.

Bilisko retired from the sheriff's office in 2007, but continued serving on the Wauconda Fire District board. He was the board's president from 2005 until his death.

“He genuinely cared about people,” said Lori Dierker, an administrative assistant with the fire district.

Bill Brimm

The former village manager of Buffalo Grove, described by one colleague as being the “glue that held the village together,” died Nov. 8 at the age of 67.

Bill Brimm served the village for 32 years, including 28 years as finance director and the last four as village manager. He retired in 2010, but he continued to serve as the chairman of the Northwest Water Commission, which provides water to Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Palatine and Wheeling.

“Buffalo Grove is in a great financial position and that's primarily because of Bill,” said Jeff Braiman, former village president. “I turned to him about anything financial, whether it was about bond raising, budgets or how to handle costs.

Another former village president of Buffalo Grove, Elliott Hartstein, credited Brimm with creating the solid financial footing needed to build a municipal fire department, a police headquarters on the village campus, renovate village hall and build the clubhouse at the Arboretum Golf Course.

Rev. Patrick Cecil

Catholic parishes across Cook and Lake counties mourned the loss of beloved pastor, the Rev. Patrick Cecil, who died Nov. 14.

He served the Archdiocese of Chicago as a priest for 38 years, including at St. Zachary Church in Des Plaines, St. Mary Parish in Buffalo Grove and at St. Patrick Church in Wadsworth, in his first assignment as pastor.

At the time of his death, Cecil was pastor of St. Mary of the Woods Parish in the Edgebrook neighborhood of Chicago. He was 64.

Nearly all of the parishes where Cecil served had a Catholic school, and he played a vibrant role in each.

At St. Patrick School in Wadsworth, for example, Cecil carried on a tradition during his 14 years there of “commissioning” each grade with their new responsibilities at the end of the school year.

“At the end of the year Mass, Fr. Pat would call each grade up, one by one,” says Lucianne DeMarco of Lindenhurst. “He told them what their new responsibilities would be as they headed into the next grade and then he blessed them. It was always very emotional.”

His dedication came across in a 2008 interview he gave to the Chicago New World.

“The work of a priest is to point out the movement of God in people's lives,” Cecil said. “That's what I try to do.”

Lillian Mary Frost

As a familiar presence in the Round Lake area, Lillian Mary Frost was known for her lively demeanor.

Frost, who served as the Round Lake village clerk from 1989 to 1999, died Oct. 8. She was 82.

Raised on the Raupp family farm in Long Grove, she married Edward James Frost Sr., in 1957 in Buffalo Grove. The couple moved to Round Lake shortly after and stayed. She was a homemaker who took pride in raising her family. Once the nest was empty, she worked at Baxter for 15 years, then was selected by then-Mayor James Lumber as city clerk.

Peggy Gustafson, who worked with Frost at the village offices for many years, described her as a go-getter and frequent volunteer.

“She was one of the sweetest ladies I ever met,” Gustafson said.

She was a devout Catholic and dedicated member of St. Joseph Church in Round Lake, where she served on the parish council for several years.

Barbara MacArthur

Barbara MacArthur of Barrington Hills, who died Sept. 12 at 82, was remembered for her work to establish and defend the village's strong stance on land conservation and environmentalism.

The widow of former village trustee Alexander MacArthur, who died in 1993, Barbara was known as a passionate pioneer of organic farming on the family's 430-acre Strathmore Organic Farms.

Former Barrington Hills village President Robert Abboud said the MacArthurs deeply influenced his work to defend the village's strict development standards.

While both MacArthurs were innovative in how they operated the family farm, Barbara took the business in an even more progressive direction after her husband's death by making it entirely organic.

“Her focus on protecting the environment was really 20 years ahead of its time,” Abboud said.

Mary Ann MacLean

A 6-foot-tall blonde with a definitive air of confidence, Mary Ann MacLean developed a reputation for being a sort of juggernaut, fighting to expand education opportunities for children and helping her husband and longtime Mettawa mayor, Barry MacLean, build his political career and the family manufacturing business.

Mary Ann MacLean, a former state board of education member and director of the Illinois State Museum, died Aug. 18. She was 73.

“She said the things that needed to be said,” daughter Gillian MacLean Growdon said. “That just spiraled into requests for her to serve on boards in education, at museums and different centers.”

A resident of Mettawa for 47 years, Mary Ann MacLean became vocal at local school board meetings when her five children were young, seeking to expand foreign language education in early grades.

She served on the Illinois State Museum board for 32 years. In 2011, the Mary Ann MacLean Play Museum opened at the Springfield site. In addition to serving on the state board of education, MacLean was a trustee at the Chicago Zoological Society, the Chicago Botanic Garden, at Dartmouth College's Rassias Center, and at Union College.

Marion Quig

Marion Quig, the former co-owner of one of Lake County's most popular apple orchards, died June 16 in Reno, Nevada. She was 74.

Born in Libertyville, Quig and her late husband, Robert, ran the orchard that bore their last name on Route 83 north of Midlothian Road in Mundelein. Robert died in 2013.

Robert Quig launched the business as a roadside stand in 1947. It eventually expanded and included a country store, a bakery, a restaurant and seasonal attractions that drew visitors from the region.

Quig's Orchard operated for 58 years until the family sold the 18-acre site to residential developers in 2005. The family moved to Wisconsin afterward.

Mundelein Mayor Steve Lentz called the orchard's closing “a sad day.”

“The Quigs were true entrepreneurs, and thousands of residents remember them fondly,” Lentz said.

Houses in what's been dubbed the Orchard Meadows subdivision now are under construction after a long delay.

Andy Rheintgen

Andy Rheintgen, who rose from community service officer to decorated Vernon Hills police officer, died Feb. 17.

Rheintgen, 39, who grew up in Vernon Hills, died a day after being taken to a suburban hospice facility. As the ambulance transporting him passed through Vernon Hills, dozens of police officers from Vernon Hills and other agencies, and friends and relatives, stood along Route 60 to show their support, officials said.

Rheintgen had been with the department for 17 years. Chief Mark Fleischhauer recalled Rheintgen was the first officer he swore in after becoming chief in 2000.

“I'll always remember Andy (for that),” Fleischhauer said.

Rheintgen once received a Lifesaving Award for rescuing a resident from a burning house before firefighters arrived, Fleischhauer said. He also received a commendation in 2014 for his role in the arrest of a suspected serial arsonist.

Rheintgen was active in the department's community events, including National Night Out and the Special Olympics.

Rob Sherman

Atheist, activist, aviator, radio host, businessman and occasional candidate, the 63-year-old Sherman died Dec. 10 when his private plane crashed into a field near Marengo. It was 30 years before, in April 1986, when he mounted his first public challenge to government-sponsored religious symbolism - arguing against Zion's plans to paint a cross on a municipal water tower.

His brash style and gleeful self-promotion irritated critics and even supporters. Sherman referred to Christians as “Constitution-hating Christers,” made jokes about God, used a coin with his likeness and the words “In Rob We Trust,” and sported a “God is make-believe” bumper sticker. The Ku Klux Klan arrived in uniform to protest Sherman's quest in Zion. But from that successful encounter more challenges followed, involving municipal seals, vehicles stickers and more, until eventually, suburbs began self-censoring religious symbols themselves.

All of this from his home in Buffalo Grove, where Sherman lived for 32 years.

In Batavia, Sherman challenged the school district's plan to charge students for full-day kindergarten, arguing the state constitution guaranteed children a free public education. Recently, he objected to the proposed Route 53 extension in Lake County, saying tolls would be too high, speeds would be too low, and financing it partly with tolls on existing Route 53 was unfair.

“I challenge those injustices that nobody else is taking on,” Sherman wrote on robsherman.com, “most prominently, but not limited to, the civil rights of atheists, state/church separation and the need for lap/shoulder seat belts on school buses.”

Trudy “Casey” Stryganek

Trudy “Casey” Stryganek was born into show business, first performing as a child with her family acrobatic troupe and then as a teen with her twin sister in the Ice Follies figure skating show. After retiring from professional skating, Stryganek became one of the Chicago Fire Department's first female paramedics in 1976. She later launched a successful emergency medical training program.

Stryganek, 67, a Hawthorn Woods resident for the past 20 years, died Nov. 27.

She joined the family acrobatic act when she was 5. They performed in professional variety shows under the name “Casey” - her father's first name - because Stryganek was difficult to pronounce, recalled twin sister Judy Zack, also of Hawthorn Woods.

When the sisters were 11, they received ice skates as Christmas presents. They turned their skating ability into a new act - the Casey Twins. They skated for audiences at a variety of venues, including at the 1962 opening of the old Randhurst Shopping Center in Mount Prospect.

The girls joined the Ice Follies, a touring production that also featured figure skating champions.

They left the show in their early 20s after Trudy Stryganek tore a hamstring during a performance in New York's Madison Square Garden. The surgeries that followed inspired her to pursue a new career: medicine.

In February 1976, Stryganek joined the Chicago Fire Department as a paramedic. The department had hired its first female paramedic less than two years earlier.

“She was a groundbreaking pioneer,” Chicago Fire Deputy District Chief Jeff Lyle said.