'She just added so much to the community': Ex-Mount Prospect trustee Michaele Skowron remembered

During her many years serving on the Mount Prospect village board and various commissions, Michaele Skowron demonstrated her devotion to public service.

"When you think about her level of public service over the years and you start adding up all the time that she gave to this community, it is just an incredible record of service to a town she loves," Mayor Paul Hoefert said.

Skowron died Thursday at age 79. She lived in Mount Prospect for 47 years before moving to Des Plaines.

She served on the Mount Prospect village board for a total of 11 years, beginning in 1993. Before that, Skowron, a former high school teacher, was a member of the Mount Prospect Elementary District 57 school board.

Her years on the village board were not continuous. In 1996 she resigned because of a state statute that prohibited elected or appointed officials from being employed by a company signing a contract with the village for more than $25,000 in a year.

Skowron worked for Motorola, a company that provided equipment to the Northwest Central Dispatch System, which included Mount Prospect.

But a change in state law allowed her to run again for the board in 1999.

"For a while, we were following each other through our career," said former Mayor Arlene Juracek, who was appointed to serve the remainder of Skowron's first term after the stepped down. When the state law was changed, Juracek chose not to run for trustee "because I was still working full time," she said. So, "she got her seat back, basically, when she ran."

Hoefert and Juracek said Skowron had a thoughtful approach to village business.

"She was not the first one to come out of the box and talk to something," Hoefert said. "She would sit there and think about it. And then she would give her comment."

At the same time, Hoefert said, "she never beat around the bush. So when she was speaking to an issue, she always just hit it head on."

And when Skowron spoke, he said, "the rest of the board listened intently."

"There are some trustees who like to talk a lot and other trustees who don't say much of anything," Juracek said. "And Michaele was more on the quiet side in terms of being very careful with what she had to say. But when she spoke, you knew that it was well thought out, well structured, and really based on a lot of good analysis."

After Skowron's second term on the board ended in 2007, she served from 2008 to 2017 on the board of fire and police commissioners, the last three years as chair.

During that time, 20 police officers and 29 firefighters were hired.

Skowron belonged to a number of other committees and commissions, including the zoning board of appeals, the cable commission that was instrumental in putting MPTV on the air, and the centennial celebration committee.

Juracek remembered that when Skowron served on the centennial celebration committee, she took on the secretary's role, which, Juracek said, is "a harder job than people realize, because you kind of have to keep all the chickens in a row there.

"She just added so much to the community."

Services are pending and likely to be held in May.