Life story: The genius behind the Super J

The creator behind one of the suburbs' most iconic childhood memories - the Super J Slide at Sunny Hill Beach in Wauconda - has died.

Stanley Jachec was a talented structural engineer who moonlighted on weekends at the beach his family owned in Wauconda, where he helped design and build many of its attractions, including its four-story slide built on a platform.

Jachec, of Arlington Heights, died Sept. 2 from pancreatic cancer. He was 87.

His family bought the 3-acre beach property along the western shores of Bangs Lake in 1945, after traveling out from the city to go swimming, his brother Anthony Jachec of Wauconda recalled.

Their mother, Mary Jachec, spotted the property that was being sold by the Wauconda mayor, and she promptly gave $10 as a down payment, Jachec said.

"She knew the war was going to be over, and that people from the city would want to come out to the beach," he said.

His mother, a Polish immigrant who knew little English, not only negotiated the purchase of the property, but she also insisted a liquor license come with it.

Over the next few years, her husband and five children worked to convert the property into a destination.

"It was a family business," says Mary Ellen Jachec, Stanley Jachec's oldest daughter. "Each of my uncles had a different role, and all of the cousins grew up working there."

The original property came with small cottages on it and a four-car garage, which the family turned into a restaurant and tavern.

They worked for the next two years, pulling out weeds and laying sand, and the family eventually took down the cottages to devote more space to the beach.

"Each year, we added something else," Anthony Jachec says, pointing to the concession stand located near the water, bathhouses, rental lifeboats, as well as the diving raft, water wheel and as many as four slides.

They added slides to keep up with neighboring Phil's Beach, but Stanley Jachec's design of the Super J topped them all.

It was nearly 45 feet tall and was built on a platform and anchored with poles drilled into the bottom of the lake. An intricate scaffolding led those brave enough to the top.

"The slide was a big draw," said Larry Jachec of Schaumburg, Jachec's nephew, "that and the abundant green grass next to the beach, where people could lay out without getting sand all over them."

During the 1960s and '70s, the beach drew as many as 2,000 people on Sundays - with cars lined up for nearly one mile waiting for the beach to open - and 1,500 on weekdays, mostly suburban teens and college students, Larry Jachec said.

The Wauconda beaches were so popular they were featured in the 1979 film "The Blues Brothers."

In 1992, Jachec and his brothers decided that insurance liability was too muc, closing the beach and selling to developers. They held an open house and gave away everything, said Anthony Jachec, the only surviving brother.

"It was a success because everyone had fun there," he said. "You left with a smile on your face."

Jachec also is survived by his wife, Julia Anne, and children Kathleen (Dennis) James, Kevin (Nancy) Jachec, Michael (Kathy Snyder) Jachec and Patricia (Douglas) Hasselo; as well as 14 grandchildren.

Services have been held.