Longtime Barrington man oversaw O'Hare expansion
O'Hare International Airport owes some of its current size and capacity to longtime Barrington resident Walter G. Metschke, who served as director of engineering during the airport's 1950s and 1960s expansion.
Metschke, 98, died Thursday at Northern Illinois Medical Center in McHenry.
His daughter, Kathleen Herold, said he was a man of great faith who built a career based on historic construction projects.
Born in 1912 on a farm near Snyder, Neb., Metschke graduated from Iowa State University in 1935 with a degree in landscape architecture.
“He had the option of either taking land or going to college, and he decided he wasn't a farmer, so (going to college) is what he ended up doing,” Herold said.
Herold said her father's faith and willingness to take any job he could find helped him find work as a civil engineer, even during the Great Depression.
He oversaw construction of homes in Oak Ridge, Tenn., where the federal government assembled thousands of scholars and scientists to develop the first atomic bomb. He later supervised construction of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Back in Chicago, Metschke became involved with the prestigious architectural firm Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, which landed him the O'Hare gig. Metschke's professional commitment to completing every project with the exact right materials and procedures helped him build a successful career, which lasted until he was nearly 80 years old.
“He was very insistent on things being done right and you couldn't talk him out of it at all,” Herold said. “Nobody could push him off the main course.”
Metschke lived in Barrington from 1955 to 2004 before moving to Wonder Lake for six years. He is survived by Herold and her siblings Richard, Ronald, David and Rebecca Corwyn; 14 grandchildren; and 13 great-grandchildren.
Visitation for Metschke will be held from 9 to 11 a.m. Monday at St. Matthew Lutheran Church, 720 S. Dundee Ave., Barrington. A funeral service at the church and burial at Windridge Memorial Park in Cary will follow.