Family of early Schaumburg mayor applauds use of his name for updated municipal campus

The family of Schaumburg’s influential second mayor, Bob Atcher, have expressed their appreciation for the village board’s Tuesday decision to rename the 60-acre municipal campus after him.

The unanimous vote of the trustees comes about a year after the demolition of the 52-year-old village hall he had once used, which was renamed the Robert O. Atcher Municipal Center around the time of his 1993 death.

His son and executor of his estate, Robert W. Atcher, addressed the influence the famous country musician-turned-mayor continues to have on 21st century Schaumburg.

“It is important to note that the original village boards led by my father devoted serious thought and commitment to an urban plan that combined residential, commercial and industrial components in order to achieve a distributed tax base,” he said. “That planning has benefited the residents of Schaumburg to this day.”

The Atcher family had experienced some angst in recent months from the suggestion that the new village hall under construction wouldn’t necessarily inherit its predecessor’s name. In fact, trustees named the building simply Schaumburg Village Hall on Tuesday in anticipation of its November completion.

But upon learning of the possibility of the campus itself carrying his father’s name, Robert W. Atcher wrote a letter directly to village board members over the weekend.

“From the beginning, we thought that this was the best way to continue to acknowledge his contribution to the founding of Schaumburg,” he said. “Assuming that this is the plan that is adopted, I wanted to express our appreciation for your continued support of recognizing his contribution to the village.”

Though Louis Redeker was the founding mayor in 1956, Atcher succeeded him as early as 1959 and served until 1975. During those 16 years, Schaumburg visibly evolved from a semi-rural community founded by German farmers well into the era of Woodfield Mall and major commercial development.

Atcher was pivotal to the planning of a regional business district kept distinct from the already developing residential neighborhoods.

Tuesday’s meeting also included the renaming of the Al Larson Prairie Center for the Arts on the municipal campus to the Al Larson Cultural Center. This came about through an effort to modernize the identity of the 40-year-old arts facility while continuing to honor the village’s fifth and longest-serving mayor who championed it.