For those of us of a certain generation, June 6 has a special meaning. It is and will always be D-Day, the day American and British forces stormed the beaches of France during World War II.
As in past years, there will be few if any public memorials commemorating the events that took place that day 81 years ago. It was only one of numerous historic events that took place in four-plus years of worldwide conflict
Casualties were high. Some 2,501 Americans were killed and allied forces suffered about 10,000 casualties. Estimates show some 5,000 Allied troops were wounded with German casualties to have been between 4,000 and 9,000.
There are, however, strong links between the fighting on the beaches that day in June and the development of Park Forest, a “G.I. Town” built to house returning veterans from the war.
One is the story of Tom McDade. The other two are the vial of sand I see every day and the flag honoring the man.
No one knows how many D-Day veterans lived in Park Forest, but one who did, Tom McDade helped forge an unbreakable connection between those two points on the map.
McDade was born in Scotland, and along with his family emigrated to Hillsboro, Illinois when he was 5 years old. He was 29 when Pearl Harbor was bombed Dec. 7, 1941.
He was part of the 4th Infantry Division which landed on Utah Beach in Normandy on D-Day. After the war he graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina, did graduate work at the University of Chicago and worked for the Chicago Housing Authority before joining Urban Investments and Development.
The company was headed by Philip Klutznick, the man who helped reshape an old golf course and vacant farmland into a new kind of community called Park Forest.
McDade was a jack-of-all-trades, including taking charge of all the rental units. Trying to keep tenants happy was never an easy task. Klutznick wrote in his book, “Angles of Vision,” that Tom invested himself in the village, living in the young community while at the same time in charge of planning and development both as a trouble shooter for the company and as a social conscience. He often directed funds from the company to worthy organizations and corporations.
He may not have been the only D-Day veteran who came to Park Forest, but once said that no matter where he lived, his heart never left the community.
Later in life, Tom and his second wife, Mignon, lived in a Lake Shore Drive apartment overlooking Lake Michigan. But when he retired in 1985, he moved back to a more modest abode in Park Forest, moving into a house on Lakewood Boulevard when its former owner, Mayor Mayer Singerman, left town.
He was never a company man. He was always a local in his heart.
Never one to test the water temperature with his toes, McDade jumped headfirst into the pool of community life. It was as if he never left town as he renewed his interest in all phases of village life, including a stint on the board of the Park Forest Historical Society.
When he was inducted into the Park Forest Hall of Fame three years after his death in 1992, his widow said, “you could take him out of Park Forest, but not Park Forest out of him.”
We made the trip to the Normandy beaches nearly 30 years ago and came home with a lasting memory.
This was a time before our cameras were part of our cellphones, and when people needed to load film in their cameras in order to snap a photograph. On my desk, there sits a plastic container which once stored such a film roll. Inside there are a few thousand grains of sand from Omaha Beach.
I see it every day. It sits in front of a folded flag given to his wife, my wife’s mother. I see both and I remember.
Jerry Shnay is a freelance columnist for the Daily Southtown.
