Patrick Rea, a longtime Tinley Park official and military veteran, is being remembered as someone who, despite traveling the world, always kept the village close to his heart.
“He truly loved Tinley more than anyone I’ve ever met,” said Mayor Mike Glotz, who asked Rea to speak at his inauguration ceremony. “He was there for everybody but himself.”
Rea, 84, died Friday at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox, according to former Tinley Park Mayor Ed Zabrocki. Rea suffered deteriorating health “for the past couple of years,” Zabrocki said.
Arrangements have not yet been firmed up but a memorial service is tentatively planned for September, Zabrocki said.
Rea was a village trustee for 37 years, starting in 1971, then was village clerk from 2009 until 2017.
He served in the U.S. Army, either in active duty or the reserves, for more than 20 years and left the military with the rank of brigadier general. Tinley Park’s Veterans Memorial near the south entrance to the 80th Avenue Metra station was named in his honor.
He was commissioned from the Reserve Officer Training Corps at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1963, then deployed to Vietnam, where he served until 1967, according to the village and American Legion.
From 1968 through 1997, Rea was in the active military or Army Reserves, commanding at every level, from platoon to brigade and serving as assistant division commander and acting commander of the 85th Division, according to the village.
In 2004, Rea received the Secretary of Defense Medal of Outstanding Public Service Award.
Rea was executive director of the Illinois Development Finance Authority and, in November 2003, was named Midwest regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration by then President George W. Bush. Rea served through January 2009 and the region he oversaw included Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.
In 2021, Rea was elected grand master of the International Knights Templar after having held the position of grand commander.
The organization of about 5,500 members was founded in 1804 and follows in the Christian philanthropic tradition of the original Knights Templar, according to a 2021 Chicago Tribune article about Rea’s election.
Zabrocki, a village trustee from 1972 to 1981 and mayor from 1981 until 2015, said Rea’s “heart and soul were in Tinley Park” his entire life.
Zabrocki said he referred to Rea during one public speech as a “Renaissance man.”
“He was so knowledgeable in a wide variety of subjects and spoke so well on all of them,” Zabrocki said. “There were so many different facets to his life.”
With Rea’s background, “he could have moved to anywhere in the world,” Zabrocki said.
Zabrocki said that Rea knew so many people and was involved in so many things directly related to Tinley Park or outside the village.
“He was a guy who would talk to anybody. He was just open that way,” he said.
Rea grew up in the village’s older Parkside subdivision and through the years lived within a very short distance of Village Hall, Zabrocki said.
Laura Godette, deputy village clerk in Tinley Park, said she had known Rea since she came to the village as deputy clerk in 2007 and worked under Rea. Both hailed from Parkside and “we were old Tinley Parkers so we had a camaraderie,” she said.
“I learned a lot from Pat,” she said. “I learned about his devotion to the village.”
Rea was appointed clerk in May 2009 following the death of longtime Clerk Frank “Bill” German. Godette worked alongside him in the clerk’s office for nearly 10 years.
“I learned so much about how things work and why things work,” she said of Rea. “He will be greatly missed.”
Glotz said he considered Rea and Zabrocki to be mentors, and that “I learned more from Clerk Rea than any person of anyone I’ve been involved with politically or not politically.”
“From his financing expertise to the military, what he brought to the table, he’s not the norm,” Glotz said.
Rea was a vice president and corporate banker at Bank One Capital Markets and began his banking career in 1969 at First National Bank of Chicago, later Bank One.
He had a bachelor’s of science degree in economics and business and a master’s in economics from the University of Illinois.
According to a village proclamation, Rea was born in Chicago and his family moved to Tinley Park’s Parkside subdivision when he was 7.
Rea was appointed village trustee in October 1971, filling a vacancy created after German was tabbed to be village clerk, according to the proclamation. Rea was one of the youngest Village Board members in the town’s then 79-year history.
mnolan@southtownstar.com
