Roselle mourns longtime leader Joe Devlin
Joe Devlin was the kind of guy who cared about building sidewalks and paving streets and countless other public works projects.
But mostly he cared about water.
If you could get him to talk about himself, he'd tell you the most important thing he ever did over 40 years in public office was to help bring Lake Michigan water to Roselle and the rest of DuPage County.
"His passion was to ensure that the services offered to the community by our public works department were top-notch," Mayor Andy Maglio said in a written statement mourning Devlin's passing, "and that legacy remains true today."
Devlin, 97, served two terms as mayor of Roselle and eight terms as a village trustee.
Devlin's involvement in village government, the story goes, began when he questioned why Roselle would levy a $5 late charge on a $6 water bill.
That interaction led him to start attending village board meetings and ultimately to run for trustee.
He was elected to his first trustee term in 1969. He served as mayor from 1973 to 1981 and then returned to his role as trustee for seven more terms, serving from 1981 to 2009.
He played a key role as one of the first members of the DuPage Water Commission bringing Lake Michigan water to the village and DuPage in what was at the time the largest public works project in the county's history. He led the push to upgrade the village's wastewater treatment plants and to build sidewalks to make the village more pedestrian friendly.
"One of the biggest things I am proud of that was beneficial to the whole village was bringing Lake Michigan water to the village (in 1992)," Devlin told the Daily Herald when he retired from the village board in 2009.
"Previously, we had well water with a very high iron content and very hard water, so now you don't need water softener and your white laundry doesn't turn yellow after a few washes."
He said he realized it was time to step down to allow some fresh ideas into the mix.
"I think 40 years is just long enough," he said.
"When you hold a seat like that for a long time, you have other people who might like to do it, but they hesitate to challenge you for it. So now you'll get some different kind of people coming in with new ways of thinking."
A veteran of World War II and former POW, Devlin moved to Roselle in 1953, after his job as a sales engineer with an industrial equipment company relocated him from Pennsylvania. The village had only about 1,000 residents at the time.
After retiring from public service in 2009, he remained active, serving as administrator of the Roselle History Museum and maintaining involvement in Roselle American Legion Post 1084 and the Bloomingdale-Roselle Rotary Club.
Visitation will be from 3 to 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, at Salerno's Rosedale Chapels, 450 W. Lake St., Roselle. Interment will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations are requested for Roselle American Legion Post 1084.