Former Aurora Mayor Albert McCoy steered city through tumultuous changes
As mayor of Aurora during the 1960s and 1970s, Albert McCoy guided his lifelong home through rapidly changing times.
Under his guidance, the city established a fair housing ordinance, reinvented its downtown and annexed 6,800 acres, including the land for the Fox Valley Mall. It led to Aurora ultimately becoming the second-largest city in Illinois.
Through it all, he maintained a steadfast loyalty to a hometown he left only to go college and serve in World War II.
McCoy, 89, died Saturday at his Aurora home.
“Aurora is a very diverse community, and growing up in it and pretty much living his whole life in it, he had a real understanding of the people of Aurora,” said his son, former Kane County Board Chairman Michael McCoy. “The thing to me that stood out is he always worried about other people and always put himself last. He was that kind of person.“
McCoy said his father gave him valuable advice as he embarked on his own political career - to be a listener, keep an open mind and give everyone their chance to speak.
“He was a super mayor, in the sense that he got a lot of things accomplished, and really about a third of our city geographically almost is probably due to his efforts,” said current Mayor Tom Weisner.
Albert McCoy served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, taking part in the Battle of Okinawa and being present in Tokyo Bay during the surrender of Japan. He received five battle stars for his service.
After the war, he attended Aurora University before receiving a football scholarship to the University of Montana, where he also played baseball. Upon returning home, he worked as the assistant controller of R&M Kaufmann, a dress manufacturer in downtown Aurora, where he met his wife of 53 years, Mary Ann.
“He worked in downtown Aurora his whole life,” Michael McCoy said, noting his father's work as a vice president of the Old Second National Bank in Aurora.
McCoy was elected mayor in 1965 and served for 12 eventful years.
In 1967, during a time of racial tension in the city, he introduced a fair housing ordinance. Aurora would become the second city in Illinois to enact such an ordinance.
“He struck up a relationship with Marie Wilkinson, who was kind of the matriarch of the African-American community in Aurora, but who was very active on the open housing issue,” Weisner said. “They not only worked well together to establish an open housing ordinance here in Aurora, but they were pretty much lifelong friends after that.”
McCoy's administration was proactive on public transportation as well, with the city deciding in 1968 to buy a fleet of minibuses to fill the void created by the demise of National City Lines.
McCoy also fought organized crime, giving information to a state investigating commission of a plan by crime syndicate members to control jukebox and vending machines in the Aurora area.
In the 1970s, McCoy focused on reviving the city's downtown, backing a plan that called for a pedestrian mall, renovation of the Paramount Theater, rehabilitating four bridges over the Fox River and construction of an eight-story civic center.
After he left office, McCoy served as the chairman of the Illinois Liquor Control Commission.
Survivors include his son Mike (Vicki) McCoy of Aurora; his daughter Cara (John) Gibbons of Henderson, Nevada; five grandchildren, Joe, Mark, and Kate McCoy and Elizabeth and Sarah Gibbons; as well as many nieces and nephews.
Visitation will be from 3 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, at the Healy Chapel, 332 W. Downer Place, Aurora. A prayer service will be conducted at 8 p.m. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Thursday, at Holy Angels Church, 180 S. Russell Ave., in Aurora. Burial will be private.