Former Arlington Heights trustee made sure everyone was heard

Virginia Kucera, who prided herself on making sure everybody’s voice was heard during her 12 years on the Arlington Heights Village Board, has died at the age of 72.

“I would say she was particularly proud of looking out for the rights of senior citizens and other people that were less empowered than some of us.” her husband, Robert C. Kucera, said Tuesday.

Mrs. Kucera, who served six years on the board of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library before running for the village board, was first elected as a trustee in 1997. She resigned from the board in 2009. She died Monday at Autumn Leaves in Crystal Lake.

In her first election, Mrs. Kucera was supported by a group that opposed slot machines at Arlington Park. Another cause that she worked on throughout her board tenure was reducing noise from jet planes. She served on the village’s advisory committee on noise from O’Hare International Airport and opposed expansion at the airport.

Kucera lived south of Central Road in an area subjected to noise from O’Hare planes, said Helen Jensen, a former trustee who was on the board for almost a decade with her.

“She was a very fine lady,” said Jensen. “She was very sincere in her service. She listened to her constituents and voted as she thought was correct. She was a hardworking, concerned person who asked very good questions.”

Mrs. Kucera was also considered more interested in human issues and less in bricks and mortar than some trustees. Before running for the board, she held executive positions with the American Academy of Pediatrics in Elk Grove Village and Clearbrook. She obtained a master’s degree in gerontology from Roosevelt University and a bachelor’s degree from Loyola University in sociology and psychology.

As a trustee she supported downtown redevelopment and also was on the board when the village purchased the Metropolis Theatre and built a new village hall. She was quoted in the Daily Herald as calling the Metropolis question “the hottest issue we’ve had to vote on.”

Mayor Arlene Mulder said Mrs. Kucera “felt we should help the theater but not buy it.

“She was a very bright woman, and she had such a passion for community service,” said Mulder. “She really liked to walk around and talk to people; she was very social.”

Joseph Farwell, a trustee who served with Mrs. Kucera, called her “an incredible lady who had a real vocation to serve the people of Arlington Heights. She prided herself in being the voice of the people, rightly so.”

Virginia Zittnan married Robert C. Kucera Sr. in 1961. Their children are Anne Marie Sablock of Seal Beach, Calif.; Robert C. Kucera Jr. and Matthew P. Kucera, both of Crystal Lake. She’s also survived by six grandchildren.

“She was so proud of our community and the people who lived in it,” Mulder said. “No one’s voice could ever be neglected in her mind.”

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 9:30 a.m. Thursday at Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, 440 S. Mitchell Ave., Arlington Heights, following prayers at 8:45 a.m. at the Glueckert Funeral Home, 1520 N. Arlington Heights Road. Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home.