Engineer who helped shape the Northwest suburbs dies at 91

A longtime Arlington Heights resident whose work as a civil engineer helped shape the Northwest suburbs has died.

William Cadigan grew up on Chicago's South Side but spent his career advancing the planning and development of such growing communities as Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect and Hoffman Estates during their boom years in the 1960s and '70s.

He died Saturday at the age of 91.

"Bill designed the infrastructure that we rely on," said former colleague Chris Burke of Christopher B. Burke Engineering in Rosemont. "He planned sewer, water, flood control and roadway systems for decades."

Cadigan served as an aviation radio technician in the Navy during World War II. Afterward, he earned his engineering degree at the Illinois Institute of Chicago on the G.I. Bill. He built his career with the Chicago engineering firm of Consoer, Townsend and Associates.

Originally, he and his wife, Mary, lived on the South Side, but when so much of Cadigan's engineering work took him to the Northwest suburbs, the couple moved there. They settled in Arlington Heights in 1960, where they raised their six children.

"My dad worked with municipalities to execute their vision of developing tracts and tracts of open land," his son, Bill, said, "and those improvements have lasted more than 50 years."

In Arlington Heights alone, Cadigan designed all of the stormwater retention basins. He also designed the groundbreaking piping that brought Lake Michigan water to Arlington Heights, Buffalo Grove, Palatine and Wheeling back in the 1980s.

Burke said Cadigan was a mentor for him and other young civil engineers, through his leadership position with the Illinois Chapter of the American Society of Civil Engineers, which encompasses more than 2,000 engineers. Cadigan also founded the Irish American Engineering Society, which still provides scholarships to students in the Chicago area each year.

"He was an ambassador for the profession of civil engineering, or really municipal engineering, and he was incredibly vital to the development of the Northwest suburbs," Burke said.

Cadigan was preceded in death by his wife, Mary, in 2014, and is survived by six children and nine grandchildren.

A funeral Mass will take place at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of the Wayside Catholic Church, 440 S. Mitchell Ave. in Arlington Heights.