Man helped bring Fermilab to Batavia

John Michael Dillon served as a Batavia city alderman more than 40 years ago, but his role in helping to navigate the arrival of Fermilab and its atomic accelerator into the small community serves as his legacy.

Mr. Dillon passed away Sunday. The 39-year Batavia resident, most recently of St. Charles, was 72.

It was back in 1967 when the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory was commissioned by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, under a bill signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson.

When government officials wanted to establish the lab on 8,600 acres of farmland in the small village of Weston, near Batavia, local residents were up in arms, Mr. Dillon's daughter recalls.

"I was in fourth or fifth grade when I used to go to the city council meetings with my dad," says Kathleen Klehr of St. Charles.

"People were all upset over the thought of an atomic accelerator coming to the area. They thought we were going to be a target for Russia."

Mr. Dillon brought a unique background to his role on the city council. He had served as a missile tester with the U.S. Army at Fort Bliss, Texas, consequently he knew something about the role of the accelerator and its lack of risks to nearby residents.

"Fermilab certainly changed the face of the area all around us. For one thing, it pretty much wiped out the town of Weston," Klehr adds.

"I don't remember whether my father was for or against it, but I think he thought of his role in the larger sense, as helping to navigate the people of Batavia through the transition."

Batavia Mayor Jeff Schielke was a cub reporter with the former Batavia Herald during those years. He vividly remembers Mr. Dillon's leadership in helping to pass a fair housing ordinance in the city, to accommodate Fermilab's employees.

"The government wanted all of the surrounding municipalities to enact a fair housing-open housing ordinance that would guarantee people -- regardless of race, creed or color -- appropriate housing," Schielke says.

"That was very controversial and didn't pass the first time.

"But John was a stalwart supporter of that bill," Schielke says, "and with some help from two other council members, they were able to get essentially the same bill passed three months later. Batavia was the first city in the area to pass one."

Mr. Dillon only served on the city council for four years, but he continued in pubic service as a 20-year member of the Batavia Zoning Board of Appeals. Once again, his daughter recalls that her father served during important growth years in the city.

"He worked in planned development," Klehr says, "making sure that the developers who wanted to turn the surrounding farmland into subdivisions, adhered to the city's master plan."

Another handprint of Mr. Dillon's in the city can be seen along the city's treescape. In his role on the Batavia Tree Commission, Mr. Dillon worked to ensure that all of the Dutch elm trees lost to disease were replaced with comparable ones that would thrive in the local conditions.

Family members say Mr. Dillon came by his civic participation through education. As the product of a Jesuit education, at both St. Ignatius High School and Loyola University in Chicago, he lived his life dedicated to social justice.

His daughter adds that Mr. Dillon was as committed to fighting racism and breaking down racial barriers as he was to public service.

"He was so involved in civil rights," Klehr adds, "that he had our whole family attend an all-black Baptist Church."

Besides his daughter, Mr. Dillon is survived by his wife, Rosemarie, and children Patricia (Jeffrey) Richardson of Batavia; John (Marcy) Dillon of Elburn; Michael (Lianne) Dillon of Redmond, Wash.; and Sharon (Glen) Nakamura of Mililani, Hawaii; as well as nine grandchildren.

A memorial service at Yurs-Wittenberg Funeral Home in Geneva, is planned for a future date.