Schaumburg mourns retired zoning board chairman
Former colleagues are mourning retired Schaumburg zoning board chairman Fred Dietrich, whom they say influenced their own public service and the village's development in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
"Fred was probably the most influential zoning board chair we ever had," Schaumburg Trustee George Dunham said.
Dietrich died Wednesday in Kentucky. He was 74.
Dietrich was heavily involved with the Schaumburg Jaycees, Dunham added. His wife, Penny Dietrich, was the immediate predecessor to current Village Clerk Marilyn Karr.
"Penny and Fred Dietrich are two of the most principled people I've ever been happy to know," Dunham said. "They were just very encouraging, very supportive, very honest and very pro-Schaumburg."
The couple retired to Kentucky in 2004 to be closer to family, ending their combined service to the village.
"We were both extremely proud of Schaumburg," Penny said. "We wanted the best for Schaumburg."
Fred Dietrich is originally from suburban Cincinnati, where he began working for Sears. He was transferred to Chicago in 1971 and, through the research he did, chose Schaumburg as the place he wanted his family to live.
His Jaycees involvement led to a deeper commitment to the village. He joined the zoning board in 1984 and became its chairman in 1986.
"He took the job very seriously," Penny said. "He read a lot. We used to drive around and look at different shopping centers - what we liked, what we didn't like."
She said he looked at each proposal with the concern he might one day look back with regret that he'd recommended it or not.
He believed he'd found the right venue for his skills on the zoning board and was never interested in the politics involved in serving on the village board, Penny said.
Dietrich's influence on Schaumburg was more significant and more subtle than pointing to one or two big developments, Dunham said.
"I think there were maybe a lot of things that weren't built because of him," he said. "He was a great believer in precedent. There was a time when the developers were coming in asking for kinds of crazy things. Fred was always the right person to put the brakes on."
One of Dietrich's major contributions was always making a developer to look at a project from the village's point of view rather than being persuaded by the developer's rhetoric, Trustee Tom Dailly said.
Though the zoning board's current system of review was probably established by Dietrich's predecessor, Russ Parker, it was Dietrich who ensured it became permanent, Dailly added.
Dietrich's successor as zoning board chairman, Roger Williams, retired last month, with Harry Raimondi appointed to replace him.
Visitation for Dietrich will be 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Monday, Aug. 7 at St. Joseph Parish, 2470 Lorraine Court in Crescent Springs, Kentucky. A funeral Mass will follow at 1 p.m.