Longtime leader Gayle Franzen recalled for vision, skills serving state, suburbs

Longtime Republican politician Gayle Franzen wore many hats in his service to Illinois and the suburbs.

He cleaned up prisons, got a tollway built, improved public transportation, and oversaw the second-largest county in the state.

Franzen, 81, died on March 3.

“I think you can simply say he was really a good citizen because he contributed so much to the community through government work,” said fellow Republican Robert Schillerstrom, who succeeded Franzen as chairman of the DuPage County Board.

The former Wheaton resident said he was proud of being called an “insider” when he ran for county board chairman in 1994. It meant he had the contacts and know-how that could get things done for the county, Franzen said at the time.

He had been an aide to Gov. Jim Thompson in the late 1970s, led the Illinois Department of Corrections, was the executive director of the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority, and served as chairman of the Regional Transportation Authority.

He also built a career in the financial sector in the 1980s and 1990s.

In 1994, he took the reins in DuPage County.

Schillerstrom said Franzen had the skills to see what was needed and what had to be done to achieve goals.

“When he went into a place, you knew it was going to be well-taken care of,” Schillerstrom said.

Among Franzen’s key accomplishments was blowing the dust off dormant plans to build an expressway through DuPage. In the 1980s, while with the tollway, he pushed for legislation authorizing the construction of I-355 on what had been a federal highway right-of-way.

“That was a monumental project, especially in an urban/suburban area,” Schillerstrom said. “It took vision, for starters. Then his skill set and political expertise.”

Remembering Franzen

“DuPage County is in the strong position it is in today because of leaders like Gayle Franzen,” current county board Chairman Deborah Conroy and county board members said Monday in a news release.

Franzen grew up on a farm in Rantoul and graduated from Michigan State University. He was an investigator in the Office of the U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of Illinois, where he met Thompson, then a U.S. attorney.

As corrections chief, he focused on operational reform and addressing overcrowding. In particular, he shook up management of the Stateville Correctional Center, reasserting staff control over inmates who had taken to roaming the grounds freely, using drugs and drinking.

At the RTA, he obtained legislative approval for a $1 billion capital reinvestment program.

At the same time, he began work as an investment banker. He was also an initial investor in the first casino in northern Illinois, the Empress in Joliet.

Franzen served as the executive director of the Illinois Sports Facilities Authority, which built a stadium for the Chicago White Sox that opened in 1991.

Personal struggle

Franzen is also remembered for abruptly departing the trajectory to hold a higher office that many expected of him.

In 1997, one week after flying around the state to formally announce his run to become secretary of state, Franzen dropped out. He said he did not have a passion for the post. “We all make mistakes. I made one last week,” he said at the time.

He revealed, in a 1999 television interview, that he did so because he was clinically depressed. Franzen said he had struggled with it since 1994. He became an advocate for mental health awareness and treatment and sought to reduce the stigma around mental illnesses.

Funeral details

After Wheaton, Franzen moved to Chicago, then to Lake Forest.

Franzen is survived by his wife, Peggy; two sons; two grandchildren; and three siblings.

Visitation will be from noon to 3 p.m. Thursday at Wenban Funeral Home, 320 Vine Ave., Lake Forest. A funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Patrick Catholic Church, 991 S. Waukegan Road, Lake Forest, followed by a reception at Exmoor Country Club in Highland Park.

Memorial donations may be made to the Mission of Our Lady of the Angels, 3808 W. Iowa St., Chicago, Illinois 60651.