Arlington Hts. loses longtime public health advocate
One of the driving forces behind the smoking ordinance in the Village of Arlington Heights has died.
Dr. William Kristy, a longtime chairman of the village's board of health, and former chief of internal medicine at Northwest Community Hospital, died June 7. He was 82.
Arlington Heights officials passed a village-wide smoking ban in November 2006, two months before a statewide ban went into effect. But they pointed to the village's groundbreaking ordinance in 1989, that Dr. Kristy helped shape, as the impetus.
"He was always there, leading that effort," said Tom Oas, former health director for the village.
Dr. Kristy came to Arlington Heights in 1961, when he joined Dr. John Detweiler's internal medicine practice, and served on the staff of Northwest Community Hospital.
"In his passing we have lost another of the early core of high-quality physicians that have played such an important role in molding the strong culture and reputation that Northwest Community enjoys today," said Bruce Crowther, Northwest Community Hospital president and CEO.
Dr. Kristy joined the board of health in Arlington Heights in 1986, four years after he had returned to his practice after taking a five-year hiatus, from 1975 to 1980, to battle head and neck cancer.
The board of health in Arlington Heights is an advisory board that includes several medical professionals. It members propose rules and regulations for the health protection of the village, and to guard against the spread of contagious disease.
As a cancer survivor himself, colleagues say Dr. Kristy was outspoken about the health risks from smoking and second hand exposure.
"More than his own experience, I think he felt as a physician, that was the thing to do, for the overall public health of the community," adds one of his six children, Rita Kristy of Highwood.
In 1989, three years after he joined the health board, the village successfully passed an ordinance requiring restaurants to designate smoking and nonsmoking areas.
"We were the first in the state to have an ordinance adopted," Oas added. "Arlington Heights was a leader in that, and as chairman of that board for many years, he supported the ordinance as well as the improved one."
Dr. Kristy ultimately served 22 years on the village's health board, including multiple terms as its chairman. By the mid-1990s, with Dr. Kristy chairing the health board, village officials mounted another campaign to ban smoking in public places.
"He was instrumental in giving us the supportive data," says Arlington Heights Village President Arlene Mulder.
In 1997, they hosted public hearings with merchants on how to reduce public smoking, before looking one year later at providing financial incentives to encourage restaurants and bars to ban smoking.
However, they were unable to pass the smoking ban until nearly 10 years later, when they drew the support from the surrounding communities of Buffalo Grove, Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg, and Palatine.
"At the time, he was very disappointed," says his wife, Joan, of Arlington Heights. "But I guess it was only a matter of time."
Besides his wife and daughter, Dr. Kristy is survived by three sons, Bruce (Karen) of Wheeling, Mark (LaNae) of Hettinger, ND and CDR Michael (Ursula) of Alexandria, Va.; and two more daughters, Anne (Tony) Mentele of Shell Lake, Wis. and Janet (George) Van Der Bosch of Lake Zurich; and 12 grandchildren.
Services have been held.