Funeral Saturday for Elgin cop who always put others before himself

James Willson was the quintessential provider who never brought home the stresses of his job as an Elgin police officer, and he relished simple things: German beer, petting his beloved bulldog and making people laugh, his loved ones said.

Willson, 51, a 27-year veteran of the Elgin Police Department and an avid motorcycle rider, died Tuesday night after his Harley-Davidson collided with a deer along Five Points Road near Old State Street in unincorporated DeKalb County, just a couple of miles from his home in Kingston. He sustained a broken rib from the crash but succumbed to a heart attack, his wife, Alice, said.

The couple have twin boys, Connor and Austin, who will turn 19 at the end of July.

On the night of the accident, Austin was riding a scooter ahead of his dad, who had the habit of meeting his son at the end of the teen's work shift in Sycamore to ensure he'd get back home safely while driving the winding, dark roads between the towns.

After the accident and without his own cellphone, Austin was unable to retrieve his dad's. He got back on his scooter and sought help, eventually flagging a DeKalb County sheriff's deputy the two had passed earlier.

Willson's funeral service Saturday evening in Elgin is expected to be overflowing with people, some of whom he served for nearly three decades.

At an intimidating 6 feet 3 inches, Willson established great rapport with people on his far west side beat and enjoyed reading to kids at Otter Creek Elementary School, said officer Allan Holder, a close friend who was hired with him Jan. 25, 1988. "Inside he was a big teddy bear," Holder said.

For about 20 years, Willson worked the police midnight shift and then went straight to a second job with a buddy's cement company. He didn't do it for the money - he did it because he truly loved to work and help his friends, his wife said.

Willson learned from his own father, a Navy veteran, the importance of providing for family, Alice Willson said.

"Jim was an off-the-charts, five-star provider," she said. "There was nothing I didn't want for, or need, that I did not get."

Once for her birthday, he traded in his truck to buy her the black Dodge Challenger she always wanted. Most recently, he gave her a scooter.

But he never expected grand gestures from his loved ones, Alice said, and instead enjoyed small gifts like a bulldog-shaped bottle opener. "You thought I'd given him the world when he opened that," she recalled.

Willson also was generous with friends and strangers.

"People may have a motive why they do things, but not Jim. Jim didn't think, he just did it for you," she said. "He just wanted to do something kind for you."

He had a long-standing love of motorcycles, and for many years owned a Honda Gold Wing from which he loved to blast classic rock. He also paraded - uninhibited - on his wife's scooter in full biker regalia, goggles and all, "like an elephant on a mouse," Holder recalled.

James and Alice Willson met through a mutual friend in 1987 on the South Side of Chicago, where they both grew up, after Willson served in the Army in Europe. For the first two weeks, he wooed her with a regimen of daily planned activities, flowers and small gifts.

Not that he needed to. She fell for him pretty much the moment she looked into his baby blue eyes, she said. "The first time I saw him, I was taken aback," she said.

He learned to be meticulous in the Army and researched carefully before embarking on projects and repairs around the house. He encouraged his sons to get a good education but also taught them a simple lesson, Alice said: "Do the best you can, and it's going to come back."

Connor loved the time the two spent camping in the Wisconsin Dells, while Austin enjoyed fishing with his dad, most recently on Lake Michigan with his police buddies.

After his retirement in two years, the Willsons planned to move to Las Vegas, where Willson wanted to get a job with the reality TV show "Tanked."

"And the thing is, Jim would have. They would have hired him," Holder said. "They would have fallen in love with him."

Visitation begins at 3 p.m. Saturday at Wait Ross Allanson Funeral & Cremation Chapel, 51 Center St., Elgin, followed by funeral services at 6 p.m. Interment will be private. Any donations for the family can be dropped off or mailed to the Elgin Police Department, 151 Douglas Ave.