A tree-hugger in age of strip malls, Graham had courage

On the last day of 2007, my family was sledding down a hill at the Lakewood Forest Preserve near Wauconda. Snowflakes were falling. The fastest sleds made it all the way to the forest edge, where a sea of snow-draped cattails gently stopped the sleds and dumped snow on laughing children. The idyllic Lake County scene looked like a postcard come to life.

And it gave me a greater appreciation for F.T. "Mike" Graham. The "father of the open-space movement" in Lake County, Graham was buried last week. He was 80 years old and out of the public eye since a stroke forced him to leave his elected job as Libertyville Township supervisor in 2003. He died in the county-owned Winchester House nursing home he once championed.

But the people of Lake County owe him thanks for having the vision and the courage to lead a movement to preserve those pristine forests and hillsides. Without his efforts, some of that land no doubt would be aging strip malls today. In an era when many governments fell all over themselves to take easy money from developers, Graham convinced the populace to spend tax dollars keeping land out of developers' hands.

As Libertyville Township supervisor, Graham created the state's first open space district in 1985, buying up land in the name of public good. He sued -- a lot. And got sued -- a lot. He won some and lost some. But with voter approval, Graham's movement preserved more than 1,500 acres. He led similar movements in his other elected job as a commissioner of the Lake County Forest Preserve, which now has 25,500 acres of truly spectacular land.

As a reporter, I covered Graham in the early 1980s. The first thing I noticed about the politician was his stutter. It often took Graham a dozen false starts as his eyes rolled back into his head. Ironically, one of the toughest things for him to pronounce was the phrase "forest preserve."

He'd stand before a raucous board and deliver the most eloquent speeches in spite of his stutter. Just as bullies did back in his school days, his fellow politicians (grown men) sometimes even stooped to mocking his speech in an attempt to belittle his arguments. Graham wouldn't surrender.

"When I was in Warren High School, I had a fight every day of the week -- and I won zero," Graham once told me. He had courage.

"I would say stuttering did more to mold me than any other single thing," Graham explained. "Either you become a victim of it or you overcome it."

Graham worked as a door-to-door salesman pitching vacuum cleaners and sold used cars before he found his political calling.

"He was roisterous and feisty," says current Libertyville Township Supervisor Betty-Ann Moore, who knows a bit about those subjects from her years as an aide to legendary Democratic state Sen. Grace-Mary Stern. "He did not shirk the battle. No matter how bruised, he persisted. He did keep his eye on the mission."

Censured a few times by his Republican Party for not toeing the party line, Graham ticked off people from both parties by doing things his way. A big-picture environmentalist, Graham often overlooked details. The FBI investigated him but never found any improprieties worth pursuing.

I called the township and forest preserve offices Monday hoping to discover they were naming something in Graham's honor.

That could happen after the boards have time to consider it.

But the township in 2003 planted a modest grove of a dozen or so spindly oak saplings near the soccer complex. They dubbed it "Graham's Grove," and Graham planted the first tree.

"We will watch it flourish and become a part of his legacy," Moore says.

That might be enough. A small grove of trees battling to carve out a niche in the suburbs may be the most fitting honor Graham could envision.