Palatine man and wife fostered more than 100 teens

The Department of Children and Family Services often turned to a Palatine couple in the 1970s and 80s when they needed an emergency placement for a teenager.

From 1972 to 1986, Walter and Barbara Zust figure they took in more than 100 foster children, mostly teenagers, often two and three at a time.

Mr. Zust passed away Wednesday. The longtime Palatine resident, most recently of McCormick, S.C., was 81.

The couple had five children of their own when they adopted their sixth, Sara, at 10 months, who had been in foster care. When she turned 2, the couple opened their home to other children in need, and the agency quickly took them up on their offer.

"We liked children and we figured we could give them some help," says Barbara Zust. "At first, they told us that since we lived so far out, they wouldn't need us very much. But that lasted like a day. From then on, I don't think there were many days without a child in our home."

When Barbara Zust returned to work full time as a math teacher at Winston Campus Junior High School in Palatine, the couple told the agency they could only take school aged children, and that they would accept teens.

From there, the floodgates opened, they said. Mr. Zust served as a father figure to all of them, his wife recalls, while he carefully documented their stays.

"They were treated just like our own kids," she remembers, despite a few who were troubled, including one who stole their new car.

During those years, Mr. Zust worked as assistant controller for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois, before joining Allstate as a financial officer. In the late 1970s, he became a Realtor, first with Century 21 in Palatine and then Remax in Rolling Meadows.

Family members say Mr. Zust loved the industry, and his peers often drew on his navigational skills honed in Air Force, to make their way across the Northwest suburbs.

In 1991, the couple retired to South Carolina, where Mr. Zust designed their family vacation home overlooking the Savannah River.

Besides his wife, Mr. Zust is survived by his children J. Bradford (Georgene) Zust, Scott (Janet) Zust, Julie (John) Hicks, Randy (Kathy) Zust and Sara Roth, and 17 grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his son, Brian.

Visitation will begin at 10 a.m. today (Wednesday) before an 11 a.m. funeral service, both at Ahlgrim Family Funeral Home, 201 N. Northwest Highway in Palatine.