Leader of volunteer police department in Buffalo Grove dies

One of the first appointments made by the Buffalo Grove board of trustees once the village incorporated in 1958 was to name Arthur Dick their first police chief.

Now, Buffalo Grove Police are preparing an honor guard for Mr. Dick's funeral, which is today. He died Tuesday at the age of 81.

"Any time you lose one of the leaders of the community like this it's a real loss," said Buffalo Grove Police Chief Steve Balinski. "Once you're a police officer, you're part of the family of professionalism of law enforcement, and he will be deeply missed."

Mr. Dick brought only his military background to the role, having served in the Army Air Corps. That and his sense of civic duty and spirit of volunteerism, family members say.

Having grown up in Chicago, Mr. Dick and his wife, Annette, moved to the Northwest suburbs in a search for an affordable first home.

"When we first moved here in December 1957, there were about 50 people," Annette Dick recalls.

The village board soon approved the creation of "special policemen" or volunteer police officers, who reported to Mr. Dick.

With no police station, the Dick home served as command central, with a special phone installed for residents to call for police protection, as the community's first rudimentary communications system.

When a call came in for police protection, Mr. Dick would turn on his porch light alerting the patrol officer of a call that needed to be handled.

"In the beginning, we did everything," Annette Dick recalls. "We delivered the mail together and he even made ambulance calls, taking sick children to the hospital in his police car.

"But he loved it," she adds. "He loved every minute of it."

Mr. Dick's police car was purchased in 1959 after the village board approved the purchase of the village's first emergency vehicle. They also voted to give him a stipend of $50 a month for his part-time role.

He served as police chief from 1958 to 1961. By 1963, village officials voted to approve the community's first full-time sworn police officer, moving away from its volunteer department.

Today, the village of Buffalo Grove employs 71 sworn police officers and with civilian staff members, numbers more than 100 in the department.

Besides his wife, Mr. Dick is survived by his children Walter (Fran) Antoszek, Jacquelyn (Jack) Hoelterhoff and Pamela (Joe) Donatoni, as well as 10 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Visitation begins at 10 a.m. before an 11 a.m. funeral Mass today at St. Mary Catholic Church, 10 N. Buffalo Grove Road in Buffalo Grove.