Former Arlington Heights village president dies

Former Arlington Heights Village President Ralph H. Clarbour, who was known for his distinctive cowboy hat and outspoken political opinions, passed away Friday afternoon of heart failure. He was 84.

Clarbour, who described his politics in a 1974 interview as "very conservative," was a village trustee from 1971 to 1981, and fought with varying degrees of success for decades to keep both the town and its government small. Even after leaving government in 1981, Clarbour continued to make his views known to village leaders, often bending the ear of current Village President Arlene Mulder and writing a column for the Daily Herald.

"He had his opinion and he didn't care if a million (people) agreed with him or 10," said Mulder. "He epitomizes what is wonderful about America and democracy."

Clarbour also served as president of Arlington Structural Steel on Davis Street, which he moved to the community from Chicago in 1967, said his wife, Mary. The two met on a blind date in 1942. She was 16; he was 18. Both were students at Calumet High School in Chicago, but hadn't yet crossed paths in the mammoth school of 4,000.

"He fascinated me, I guess. I fell for him," said Mary Clarbour.

Clarbour then served as a turret gunner in a bomber in the South Pacific, completing 79 missions, she said. The two were married after he returned from the war.

Clarbour, whose grandfather lived in Arlington Heights and introduced him to the town when he was younger, moved here in 1949.

"I think it was when he first ran for village trustee (that) he got hooked" on politics and government, Mary Clarbour said.

Winning his seat in 1971, he was tapped three years later to replace Village President Jack Walsh, who had moved to Wisconsin. When he failed to be slated for president by the Village Caucus party, Clarbour mulled a run as an independent, but instead decided to back James Ryan, who went on to become village president.

But the political alliance later died when Ryan supported efforts to establish what was then a novel urban development tool, the tax-increment financing district, and high-rise buildings in downtown Arlington Heights.

"Arlington Heights is a single-family residential town, and I'd like to see it stay that way," said Clarbour in 1981.

Clarbour and anti-development trustees dominated the board in 1979, but Ryan came back to defeat Clarbour for president in 1981, sweeping in a majority of pro-development commissioners.

Still, Clarbour didn't give up. He and others formed the "Shadow Project" in the '90s, which collected more than 6,000 signatures in opposition to further downtown development. He also filed a lawsuit against the village alleging it had improperly closed and given away to developers Davis Street between Evergreen Avenue and Arlington Heights Road. He also opposed efforts to bring a casino to town in 1995.

Daughter Lee Anne Clarbour recalled that her father insisted on honesty and forthrightness from them as children, warning them that it would be worse to lie than to honestly admit wrongdoing.

"He was too honest for a politician," she said.

Clarbour always reminded them to keep their head up and say hello to people.

"He just really instilled in all of us ... that you did the best that you could and you just always reached out," Lee Anne Clarbour said. One year, on a camping trip to Colorado when a surprise snowstorm sprung up, Clarbour kept his kids busy helping other families break camp.

"So no matter where you went, (he taught) you just always looked for an opportunity to look, greet them and help them," she said.

Clarbour did his own reaching out, participating in the Boy Scouts and making donations of flags and flag poles to local public buildings.

He continued working at the steel plant, proudly showing Mulder a few weeks ago a mammoth steel truss the plant had assembled for a high-rise building going up at Washington and Wells streets in Chicago.

"He went to work Thursday and came home fine," said Lee Ann Clarbour. Later that night, he went into Northwest Community Hospital and died at 1:50 p.m. Friday.

Clarbour is survived by four grandchildren, wife Mary, daughter Lee Anne, and sons Richard, David and Dan. He was preceded in death by his son James, who died of cancer at 15, and his son Donald, who was killed in action in Vietnam.

Services have not yet been set, but are being handled by Glueckert Funeral Home, (847) 253-0168.