Mayor Lams set the stage for opening of Randhurst

Theodore A. Lams entered political life in 1945 when he ran for trustee on an unopposed ticket. Not having served in the military, he saw it as a good way to fulfill his civic duty.

When village President Maurice Pendleton announced he would not seek re-election in 1953, Lams ran for the post unopposed. The village was booming due to the migration of thousands of people and families from Chicago who sought "gracious country living."

Scrambling to respond to rapidly growing needs, Lams hired a village manager and set up a managerial structure of municipal government. This included boards that modernized the village's finances.

He also entered into an agreement with the Metropolitan Sanitary District that brought the village one of the country's best sewer systems at the time.

Lams was re-elected in 1957 as part of the Village Welfare Party. This time, he was victorious over candidates backed by three other parties - the Mount Prospect Citizens Party, the 1957 Progressive Party and the Community Party.

To increase sales tax revenue and to lay the groundwork for a master economic development plan, Lams annexed land for a massive shopping center - Randhurst, then the largest indoor, air-conditioned shopping space in the country.

Its grand opening occurred the year after he left office in 1961.

Lams' mild manner and even temperament brought calm to the sometimes volatile environment of a quickly growing community.

Serving as mayor was just one part of Lams' professional life. For the majority of his professional career, he worked as a professor of music at Northwestern University. He taught pipe organ and piano, and played every Sunday for the choir at Faith Lutheran Church in Arlington Heights, as well as serving as an organist and choir director for various Lutheran churches in the Chicago area.

Lams was a founder and board member of the Northwestern Suburban YMCA, was one of the original organizers of Northwest Community Hospital, and was a long-term member of the Mount Prospect Lions Club.

He also served as president of the St. Paul School Board and was active in the Northwest Suburban Boy Scout organization.

Lams and his wife, Hildegarde, raised four daughters at 117 S. William St. He left Mount Prospect in 1970 for Evergreen, Colorado, where he was active with the Kiwanis Club, county historical society and philharmonic orchestra, was manager of the chamber of commerce, and was a substitute organist for many churches.