We pay our respects to the notable deaths in Lake County
During 2011, many local heroes died, leaving behind their life as a legacy. The Daily Herald remembers some of the notable people who died this year and their impact on the community.
From veteran politicians and business leaders to young soldiers serving overseas, each had a lasting influence on their families, friends and the Lake County community.
Mark Beaubien Jr.
State Rep. Mark Beaubien Jr., who represented the Barrington area in the state legislature for nearly 15 years, died June 5 after suffering an apparent heart attack. He was 68.
“He was a giant, one of the great guys,” Lake County GOP Chairman Bob Cook said. “Regardless of party, he voted his conscience, and he always did what he thought was right. You have to respect that.”
Beaubien, of Barrington Hills, was known as a moderate Republican. He represented the 52nd House District, which included most of the Barrington area and portions of Wauconda, Fox Lake, Round Lake, Fox River Grove, Cary, Island Lake, McHenry and Lakemoor.
House colleagues praised him for his sharp knowledge of complex state budget issues, on which he served as Republican point man for several years. He also was described as a mentor to younger lawmakers.
He joined the state legislature in October 1996 to fill a seat left vacant by the resignation of former representative Al Salvi.
He won the election one month later and faced few serious challenges in the seven elections thereafter.
Before heading to Springfield, Beaubien served on the Lake County Board and as Cuba Township supervisor.
George and Joan Chioles
Mundelein residents George and Joan Chioles, founders of the Gale Street Inn eateries in Chicago and Mundelein, both died in 2011.
George Chioles, 83, died Aug. 21. His wife, Joan, died May 28. She was 87.
The restaurants, first in Chicago and then in Mundelein, long have been popular hangouts, and George Chioles loved spending time with his customers, daughter-in-law Vicki Chioles recalled.
“It was his stage and those people were his audience,” Vicki Chioles said.
Born and raised in Chicago, Chioles had several jobs in various fields until he and his wife bought a Jefferson Park tavern in 1963. Set at the corner of Gale Street and Milwaukee Avenue, the eatery was dubbed the Gale Street Inn.
The Mundelein location opened on Diamond Lake Road in 1975 in the former Happy Hollow Resort building. An electrical fire destroyed the building, leading to the construction of a new Gale Street Inn Diamond Lake in 1977.
The Chioles family sold the Chicago restaurant in 1985 but continued operating the Mundelein location, which moved across Diamond Lake Road in 2002.
Joan Chioles was a schoolteacher at Lucy Flower Vocational High School in Chicago's Garfield Park neighborhood in the 1950s and 1960s.
“She loved it,” daughter Georgene Chioles-Neff said. “And they loved her.”
Joan Chioles also ran the Chicago restaurant until 1985, and then worked at the Mundelein location in the banquet rooms.
Lewis W. Hill
A former Regional Transportation Authority CEO with ties to Chicago's original Daley administration, Lewis W. Hill died Oct. 8. He was 85.
Hill, of Mundelein, led the rail-and-bus organization in the 1970s and 1980s.
He previously had served as a commissioner of urban renewal in Chicago in the 1960s under Mayor Richard J. Daley, and as commissioner of development and planning.
The RTA expanded under Hill's leadership, purchasing four suburban bus companies in 1981. But the agency also dealt with well-reported financial problems that year, too.
In 1982, a strike by some 26,000 railroad engineers affected commuter transit. The strike ended after Congress and President Ronald Reagan ordered the employees back to work.
Mabel Holle
Mabel Holle, a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., died Dec. 11 at her home in Lake Forest after a long illness. She was 91.
A strong-armed outfielder and third baseman, Holle played in 90 games in 1943 and 1944 for the Kenosha Comets and the South Bend Blue Sox of the all-American Girls Professional Baseball League — the league that inspired the 1992 movie “A League of Their Own.”
Born in Jacksonville, Ill., Holle showed athletic ability at a very young age. After graduation from MacMurray College, a tryout at Wrigley Field led to her involvement with the AAGPBL. As a player, Holle possessed a cannonlike arm.
“She could throw some people out from center field to home plate,” her sister, Patricia Patrick, said.
Holle also distinguished herself as a physical education instructor, coach and athletic administrator in the Waukegan schools.
Holle was the first person to chair the IHSA Girls Track and Field Advisory Committee. She also served on the state meet's games committee.
Doris Hibbard McClory
She never held public office, but Doris Hibbard McClory, a fixture in Washington and Lake County, was well-known and respected in Republican circles.
The widow of former Congressman Robert McClory of Lake Bluff died Nov. 26 in a health care residence near her home in Washington. She was 81.
“She was a go-to person,” said her stepson, Mike McClory. “People would say about her, ‘If you want to get something done in Washington, call Doris McClory.' She was a very persistent person.”
Though her husband died in 1988, Doris McClory maintained a close connection to Republican politics, volunteering for years at the White House.
She also had a home in Gurnee and would return to the area several times a year to take an active role locally as well.
She was a television producer for many years with the Goodson-Todman organization, working on shows such as “I've Got a Secret” and “What's My Line.”
She met Robert McClory, who had been widowed about a year earlier, when he appeared as a guest on the latter in the late 1960s. He served 20 years in Congress, beginning in 1963.
David Robinson
Army Sgt. 1st Class David G. Robinson, 28, formerly of Winthrop Harbor, died Oct. 25 in Riyada, Saudi Arabia.
Robinson was supporting Operation New Dawn, the U.S.'s Iraqi rebuilding effort.
Details of his death have not been made available, but family members have said they were told it was a noncombative situation.
Robinson, who leaves behind a wife and two children, was on his second tour of duty in the Middle East, when he died. He was based in El Paso, Texas.
Family members said Robinson joined the Army in 2003 in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
“David will always remain a hero in our eyes, because he chose to stand up for his country at a time when we all needed him the most. He will forever be held in our family's honor as a true patriot, and in our hearts as a loving son, a humbled and caring husband and an awesome father,” his family said in a statement after his funeral.
William Schroeder
Farm work was a labor of love for a young William Schroeder, but it was a passion for writing and community that led to a 55-year career in the local news business in Lake County.
Known for his hard work and involvement in a variety of business and civic organizations, the Long Lake resident and co-founder and former publisher of Lakeland newspapers died Dec. 17. He was 82.
Under Schroeder, Lakeland began with weekly publications in Grayslake, Round Lake and Fox Lake, and grew to include a dozen or more newspapers. He pioneered the practice of “zoning” news and advertising — a trend that spread to other publications.
He helped form the Suburban Press Foundation, predecessor of the Suburban Newspapers of America and, in 1980, became president of the Illinois Press Association, the largest state newspaper association in the country.
“I always see Bill as a news guy — he exemplified a generation of family-owned newspapers,” said Wayne Woltman, also a past IPA president and former publisher/owner of the Press Republican chain of papers in Kane and DuPage counties.
Howard ‘Bud' Scott
Years after Howard “Bud” Scott stopped working at Grant High School, students would stop by his home and thank him for changing their lives.
“They would tell me, ‘I never would have made it through school without him,'” his wife, Roberta Scott, said. “I've heard that about him so many times throughout my life.”
The former Lake County Board member and trustee of the Lake Villa Protection District Board died Jan. 14 of complications due to diabetes. He was 75.
Scott had been a teacher, principal and assistant superintendent during 22 years at Grant in Fox Lake, and a former member and chairman of the Fox Waterway Agency Board.
As president of the fire board, he presided over the construction and opening of its new substation in Lindenhurst in 2008.
Scott was active in the local political circuit, serving as Lake Villa Republican precinct committeeman since the 1960s.
He was a two-term director of the Fox Lake Chamber of Commerce, a Lake Villa Township trustee and was a member of the Lake County Planning Commission.
His family described him as “a man of the community” who put his hometown first.
Andrew Wade
Spc. Andrew P. Wade, 22, of Antioch died March 9 in Kunduz province, Afghanistan, and became the third Antioch High School graduate to be killed serving in the Middle East since 2005.
Wade died as a result of a “noncombat-related incident” March 7, according to the U.S. Department of Defense. A family friend said he was injured a day before he was scheduled to return home.
Wade was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum, N.Y.
He joined the Army in September 2008 and was deployed in spring 2010 in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, the Department of Defense said.
He was remembered as a star athlete at Antioch High, where he graduated in 2007 before joining the military. He was named to the Daily Herald All-Area team for soccer in 2006.
“We oftentimes talk about the player on the team that is the first one there and the last one to leave, and that was Andrew,” said Jorge Anduray, who coached Wade for five years. “He talked about the sport day and night.”