Schaumburg loses longtime planner, mentor

Schaumburg is beginning the new year grieving the loss of one of its earliest but longest-serving volunteers who had a big role in shaping its current landscape and leadership.

Russ Parker, chairman of the village's zoning board of appeals from 1967 to 1986, died on Christmas at 85.

Under the guidance of the affectionately nicknamed "Professor" Parker, many of today's village trustees received their training in municipal planning, Mayor Al Larson said.

Parker "helped shape Schaumburg," Larson said. "He was a mover and a shaker. He was our planning department before we had a planning department, and even after. An elegant man."

Parker was surprised by the honor of having the board room at the Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center named after him during Schaumburg's 50th anniversary year in 2006.

At that event, he modestly downplayed the wisdom and encyclopedic memory that those who served with him remember him for.

"I never had any training in urban renewal or whatever you call it," Parker said. "It was all common sense."

But Larson said Parker was skilled in seeing through the rhetoric of well-heeled developers and unafraid to disagree with the larger-than-life figure of longtime Mayor Bob Atcher about the direction of Schaumburg's growth.

In his eulogy for Parker, Larson called him the Merlin to Atcher's Arthur, the Jefferson to Atcher's Washington.

"He was able to pick apart proposals that were just absurd and ridiculous," Larson said of Parker.

An example of this was a plan to put 10-story buildings on the present site of the village's municipal grounds, next to single-family homes.

On the other hand, Parker could think big enough to see the benefits of Woodfield Shopping Center when it was first proposed and recognized its potential to help fund improvements to other areas of the village.

After his service on the zoning board ended, Parker went on to serve the Schaumburg Park District's long-range planning committee from 1987 to 1993 and then its joint advisory committee until 2005.

"He was part of our planning for 18 years," park district Executive Director Jean Schlinkmann said. "He was a wonderful addition, based just on his knowledge of the village and the parks. During his tenure, we had a lot of development going on, and his input was instrumental."

The park district also honored Parker in 2006 by naming the playground and sports fields north of Schaumburg Road near National Parkway after him.

Park district Commissioner George Longmeyer was Schaumburg's village manager when Parker was on the zoning board, and admired both eras of Parker's volunteerism to the community.

"He was a pure citizen volunteer," Longmeyer said. "He thought only about whether something was good for Schaumburg or not. He had no other ax to grind. He was really a sharp guy, and modest. We were lucky to have him."

Parker served in the Navy during World War II and worked for the Federal Reserve, Larson said.

Parker's survivors include his wife of 60 years, Carmella, with whom he moved to Huntley just a few years ago.

But he'd continued to serve Schaumburg on the committee that reviewed the proposals for today's convention center, as well as on the 50th anniversary committee.