Retired village manager to be Hoffman Estates' 4th of July parade marshal

As Hoffman Estates' 4th of July Parade returns for the first time since 2019, the town will take the opportunity honor its longest-serving village manager, Jim Norris, with the title of parade marshal.

Mayor Bill McLeod said Hoffman Estates has a long history of honoring important contributors to the community at the parade.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth became the parade marshal when she returned to her hometown after being injured in combat in Iraq, McLeod said. And during Hoffman Estates' 60th anniversary year in 2019, Village Historian Pat Barch received the honor.

McLeod said Norris, who retired during the first year of the pandemic, is deserving after his more than 22 years of leading the day-to-day operations of the village, along with all the achievements that were attained along the way.

Norris, who will be marking the second anniversary of retirement in August, said he was touched to have been remembered in this way.

"It's a great honor," Norris said. "I was really pleased when I got a call from the mayor asking me to be the parade marshal. It was a very nice surprise. It's great to see the parade and the festival come back."

This year's parade will step off at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 2. The route is along Illinois Boulevard, proceeding northeast from Paris Lane to Evanston Street.

The village's fireworks this year will be after dusk on Sunday, July 3.

In addition to Norris' service to Hoffman Estates and a number of the organizations and agencies to which it belongs, he's been an adjunct professor of public administration at his alma mater, Northern Illinois University. He also has served as an adjunct instructor at Northwestern University in Evanston and at Park College in Kansas City.

After an extensive search, Norris was succeeded as village manager in early 2021 by Eric Palm, who had been serving as village administrator of West suburban River Forest.