Family, friends and even occasional political adversaries are remembering Mark Damisch for his devotion to Northbrook and his family and someone who toured the world as a concert pianist.
Damisch, a former three-term Northbrook village president, died Sept. 6 of colon cancer, according to his family.
“Mark was someone who absolutely loved the village of Northbrook and had the best intentions in everything that he did,” Village President Kathryn Ciesla said. “He really wanted to give back to the community. It wasn’t about him, it was about giving back to the community.”
In 1993, after serving in several roles in village government, Damisch was elected village president. Over the next 12 years, he presided over the community as it earned its first-ever Triple A bond rating and established an economic development commission, according to village officials.
On the physical side, Skokie Boulevard was redeveloped and the creation of a real estate tax abatement incentive agreement encouraged Crate & Barrel to establish its corporate headquarters. Separately, he convinced a real estate developer to build the Willow Festival Shopping Center in Northbrook, Village Attorney Steven Elrod recalled.
“He brought a sense of creativity and innovation to every deal and every matter that we worked on together,” Elrod said.
Other initiatives of the Damisch era were the planting of many trees in Northbrook along with the creation of a human relations commission and an arts commission.
“It is just something that just pulled a whole group of folks together and I think it adds to the depth of Northbrook,” Ciesla said of the arts commission.
Born in Lake Forest and raised in Northfield, Damisch earned three degrees from Northwestern University, including a law degree.
After graduation, he initially worked for the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office before joining his father’s law firm, where he concentrated on personal injury law.
“It is really helping others when they get justice when they have been a victim of an unfortunate situation,” noted his wife, Patty.
While the law was part of the Damisch family tapestry, so was politics. In college and law school, Damisch worked for U.S. Reps. John Porter and Robert Hanrahan during the 1970s.
“I think I walked my first precinct when I was 10 years old and I was working as a paid staff aide on a campaign when I was 16,” Damisch told the Chicago Tribune in 2004.
While in college, he met Patty on a blind date and they were married in 1981, soon to settle in Northbrook.
“I grew up in Glenview and he grew up in Northfield so it was neutral territory,” she remembered. “It was a nice suburb near both of our families but not in either of the other’s hometown.”
Not long after moving into Northbrook, Damisch was named the chairman of the village’s cable television commission. Officials wanted to capitalize on his expertise as he wrote his law school thesis on cable TV as an emerging technology and did a lot of research on the subject, Patty Damisch noted.
“He was in his 20s but he was the head of the cable commission because he was the most knowledgeable by far,” she said.
The cable TV commission chairmanship launched an involvement in Northbrook politics that lasted over 20 years.
While there was an unsuccessful run for the Illinois State House in the 1980s, Damisch was later appointed to Northbrook’s Plan Commission and elected village trustee in 1991. Two years later, he ran unopposed for the village presidency.
“He wanted to have an impact on his community,” Patty Damisch said. “By then we had lived here a number of years and we had kids in the schools. He wanted to make it a community we could be proud of.”
Damisch took on other political roles outside of Northbrook. He was active in the Northfield Republican Organization at the same time Patty was the longtime Northfield Township Assessor.
He also worked with neighboring communities, becoming president of the Northwest Municipal Conference and being involved with the formation of the Metropolitan Mayors Caucus with then-Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley.
While at the NMC and MMC, Damisch teamed with Skokie Mayor George Van Dusen. Despite their political contrasts, as Van Dusen is a Democrat, the two became friends.
Van Dusen whimsically recalled one trip when the two were set to meet in Springfield with Illinois Senate Minority Leader James “Pate” Philip, who led the Republican caucus.
“Mark turned to me and said, ‘George, keep all of your liberal stuff to yourself for 45 minutes. Let me handle this. When we get to (Democratic Leader) Sen. Emil (Jones), then I will be your mannequin.’”
Damisch made his own run for the U.S. Congress in 2000 when U.S. Rep. John Porter decided not to seek another term. Damisch joined a crowded field in the Republican primary, but was defeated by Mark Kirk, who also won the general election and served as a congressional representative and later U.S. Senator.
Damisch was re-elected village president for a third term in Northbrook in 2001, but his bid for a fourth term came up short in 2005 when he was defeated by Eugene Marks. He tried to regain the village presidency in 2009 but came in third as voters selected Sandy Frum.
Yet Frum remembered how Damisch impacted her campaign.
“I thanked him for getting out and walking the village and going door to door because it made me go out and walk the village,” Frum said. “It was one of the best things that I did in the sense of learning about the community and what their interests were.”
While they had their political differences, both Frum and Ciesla noted Damisch was gracious in offering advice and suggestions.
“I’m very grateful for his mentoring, his counsel and I am certain that he put his best foot forward to do what was not best for him, but what he felt was best for the community,” Ciesla said.
As much as he was involved in politics, another passion for Damisch was his ability at the piano.
He learned to play at the age of four, becoming a concert pianist when he was a teenager when he started performing nationally and internationally from the age of 18 through 22.
After having to stop touring due to time demands, Damisch started touring again in 2000, making annual visits around the world and donating the proceeds of concerts to charity.
“It was a way for him to play the piano, appreciate audiences as well as help all kinds of different charities,” Patty Damisch said. “He became very much in demand to the point that he had to turn people down sometimes because he only had so many days to get away from the law (practice).”
While busy with his professional commitments, Damisch stayed close to his three daughters. Kristina Damisch remembered how he would tug on his ear at specific moments of televised Village Board meetings, sending a signal to his daughters that he loved and was thinking about them.
“It was a good example of how he balanced these things and was passionate about everything at the same time,” she said.
Besides the piano, other interests including gardening, reading, a love of travel and attending Northwestern University football and basketball games.
Survivors include Patty, daughters Kristina, Katherine and Alexandra, his father John and brother Peter, along with three grandchildren. Patty Damisch said her husband died on the day of their 43rd wedding anniversary.
Services have been held.
