Lorens Tronet died at age 63.

I knew him first because he came to visit my father. A lot. That was when his and my office were at the southwest corner of East Crystal Lake Avenue and South Williams Street.

He ended up running for Recorder of Deeds as a Democrat. Naturally, Republican Phyllis Walters, running for the first time, beat him.

During the early part of my eight years in Springfield during the 1990’s, Elyse Roberts and Loren came down to Springfield to lobby for those little signs you see when people spray their yards with insecticide or fertilizer.

My legislative colleagues called them the “tinfoil people.”

That’s because the two were quite sensitive to chemicals.

The two went to a bar north of the Stratton Building frequented by lobbyists and legislators. Before they sat down on the stools, they covered them with tinfoil.

Because all the hotels and motels in town were sprayed for bugs, they couldn’t stay in them. Instead, they parked a new motor home in the visitors’ parking lot and spent nights there.

Elyse told me even new tourist rooms were sprayed prior to opening an establishment…before any buys had been spotted.

She also explained that they were fine driving down Interstate 55 until they got to Bloomington.

She explained that farmers knew how to apply the right amount of chemicals to the land, that they did not overuse them, because that would be money out of their pockets.

As they approached Bloomington, they could tell they were entering Chemlawn country.

After they passed that metropolitan area, their allergic reactions disappeared.

The legislation they came to fight would have required the warning signs even in Home Rule municipalities.

I pretty much led the fight. My opposition to the position held by all those cities won me low ratings from the Northwest Municipal League, whose members didn’t want any mandates from state government, even when it would cost them nothing.

The last time I talked to Loren he needed help with the Secretary of State’s Office concerning his drivers’ license. He was living on an island in the Gulf of Mexico off Florida to avoid chemicals which set off his allergic reactions.

He was also quite involved in Florida Democratic politics.

I asked Crystal Lake Community High School classmate Mike Walkup what he remembered about Lorens. Here’s what he wrote:

“As you may know, Lorens had multiple chemical sensitivities. What I do now for a living is representing people around the country with that problem. The last time I saw him he was wearing plastic gloves and had on a respirator.

“He was in some type of accident as a youth which disfigured his face.

“I didn’t know him until some point later when he was suddenly in my class at school. It may have been Freshman year at CLCHS, I’m not sure. He was older than the rest of the kids in the class. I had come over from North Elementary by way of North Junior High. I know his mother recently lived in the central part of town so if it was always the same house he should have been at North JR if not at North Elementary.

“But my first memory of him was definitely at the HS level when he was in my study hall sitting right in front of me. I remember he got in trouble for something that day. He was pretty much of an outcast. I didn’t have much contact with him.

“We are now starting to learn that the chemical sensitivities are a physical problem, not some type of mental impairment. The people who have this are the ‘canaries in the coal mine.’ They are warning the rest of us that there is a problem with our environment.

“Lorens could probably best be remembered for that.”