Funeral services set for Lombard village president
Funeral services are set this weekend to remember Lombard Village President William “Bill” Mueller.
Visitation will be from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at St. Pius X Catholic Church, 1025 E. Madison, Lombard. A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the church, with interment to follow at Queen of Heaven Cemetery in Hillside.
Mueller, who was battling the cancer multiple myeloma, died Aug. 18 from complications of West Nile virus. He was 76.
Born Oct. 31, 1935, Mueller was a lifelong Lombardian who proudly trumpeted his loyalty with a license plate that read “LOMBARD.” He ran an American Family Insurance office after serving in the Illinois Air National Guard, and began his leadership role in the Lilac Village in 1957 when he joined the Lombard Safety Committee.
As Mueller and his wife, Eileen, raised their family, they attended St. Pius X, a Catholic congregation where Mueller served as a school board member from 1968 to 1974.
Mueller was a Lombard trustee from 1975-79 and started his tenure as the village’s longest-serving president in 1993.
During his time at the helm, Lombard saw economic development of restaurants and stores around Yorktown Center along with construction of the Westin hotel, where the main ballroom bears his name.
He served on the DuPage Mayors and Managers Conference and built a wealth of knowledge about the DuPage Water Commission, on which he served from 1999 to 2010.
As village president, Mueller also worked to keep the Sheldon Peck Homestead at its historic location at Grace Street and Parkside Avenue.
He persuaded trustees who originally wanted to move the building to buy the property and allow the Lombard Historical Society to operate it as a museum. The building now is on the Network to Freedom, a list of verified Underground Railroad locations managed by the National Park Service.
In lieu of flowers, memorials would be appreciated to your favorite Lombard charity, such as St. Pius X Catholic Church, Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation, Lombard Tri-Town YMCA, Lombard Historical Society Carriage House Fund, or the Deicke Home.
Ÿ Daily Herald dtaff writer Marie Wilson contributed to this report