Frank Vlach was an Oakbrook Terrace alderman for nearly 20 years, taking his seat years after retiring from Western Electric’s famed Hawthorne Works and holding it right up until his death at 91.
“He was just a very good person for the community,” said Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Paul Esposito. “He worked in the best interests of the city, and never put himself first.”
Vlach died of natural causes March 26 at his home, said his wife, Verna. He had been in declining health, she said.
A Chicago native, Vlach graduated from St. Ignatius College Prep in Chicago and attended Loyola University Chicago. An engineer by trade, Vlach worked at Western Electric’s Hawthorne Works factory complex in Cicero until it closed in 1983.
In 1977, Vlach moved from Brookfield to Oakbrook Terrace and began taking an interest in community issues. Vlach worked for 12 years for the Oakbrook Terrace Park District, where he was a game warden enforcing fishing licenses at the district’s Terrace View Park pond. He was also active in the town’s senior organization.
In 2005, Vlach ran for a seat on Oakbrook Terrace’s City Council, serving constituents of the city’s Ward 2, which largely consists of residents in single-family homes in the main single-family subdivision. Vlach defeated incumbent Laura Vargas, and prevailed in four contested elections in a row after that.
While on the council, Vlach worked to secure free garbage collection for residents, and to keep their sewer bills low, colleagues said.
“Frank was very, very fiscally conscious and conscious of community spending, but he also served his constituents when needed,” Esposito said.
“He liked being helpful for the city,” Verna Vlach said. “He wanted everybody to live nicely.”
Oakbrook Terrace Ald. Mary Fitzgerald, who was elected in 2021, noted that Vlach “voted according to his conscience and I was proud of him for that.”
“He focused on things like residents’ electric bills and stop signs,” she said. “So his perspective was more local and personal than broad.”
This spring, Vlach had decided to not run for reelection after five terms in office, and he died shortly before the election for his replacement.
A first marriage to Mary Ann Vlach ended in divorce. In addition to his wife, Vlach is survived by a daughter, Sharon Smith; a stepdaughter, Denise Olalde; a stepson, Joseph Carco; a sister, Dorothy Pfeuffer; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Services were held.
Goldsborough is a freelance reporter.