Al Mulder, husband of former Arlington Heights mayor, dies at 81

Al Mulder — the familiar presence beside his wife at community events in Arlington Heights who jokingly introduced himself as “the mayor’s wife” — has died.

The husband of former Mayor Arlene Mulder, who served in the top elected village post from 1993 to 2013, died unexpectedly Tuesday, said their son, Michael. He was 81.

An immigrant from the Netherlands who came through Ellis Island with his family at the age of 10, Al Mulder went onto a long career in the trade show exhibit business that took him around the world. But the company that recruited him was based in Chicago, so it was in the early 1970s that he and his wife decided to make Arlington Heights their home.

He joined the Frontier Days committee in the 1980s, helping grow the local Fourth of July festival into one of the biggest summer events in the suburbs.

As Arlene was getting involved in local government — first, as a park district commissioner, then, as a village trustee — Al was busy in the trade show business. He worked for General Exhibits & Displays, and later rose to become president of Superior Exhibits, which designed displays for major corporations worldwide.

“He was able to allow her to focus on her career, while he still managed his,” Michael Mulder said. “They balanced. They both were workaholics. They were passionate. My dad was always an overachiever. Always pursued a higher level of excellence and never stood for mediocrity.”

The couple met as students at San Francisco State University and married just a month after Al graduated in 1966 with a business degree. After working in sales and engineering for General Electric and making stops in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and New York, Mulder got his dream job running Disneyland’s Carousel of Progress in Tomorrowland.

Though he planned to retire earlier, Mulder worked until just a few years ago, staying on to help a large manufacturer of dental equipment with its major redesign project.

“He had an incredible attention to design and lighting,” his son said.

Mulder is survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Glueckert Funeral Home, 1520 N. Arlington Heights Road. Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Monday at Our Lady of the Wayside, 434 W. Park St., with interment to follow at St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery.