McHenry County Blog

Fred and DeLoris Doederlein at a Veterans Stand Down held at Camp Algonquin.

I think it was in a special election in 1969 when I met Fred Doederlein.

Doederlein was the owner of Doederlein Lumber in East Dundee and a Township Trustee.

He was contesting with fellow Dundee Township resident R. Bruce Waddell, McHenry’s Tom Davis (whom I supported) and several others for the seat made vacant by a motor cycle accident that killed incumbent Jack Hill of the nursery named after him.

It was a very low turnout election with nothing else on the ballot which Waddell won.

When State Rep. Jill Zwick, one of the two people who won State Rep. seats the year I decided to run unsuccessfully for Congress (the other was Dick Klemm), suddenly announced her retirement with her husband Mort quickly picking up the mantel, DeLoris Doederlein was the one immediately ready to seek the same office.

She won with Jack Schaffer and I writing a joint letter in her support.

DeLoris’ bold campaign resulted in victory.

After the primary Jill saw me in Springfield and said something to the effect, “You guys (in McHenry County) really can put a a full press when you want to.”

“I never got the feeling you really wanted Mort to win,” I replied.  I believe the two were divorced by that time. (Mort is now a Chicago judge elected as a Democrat. Jill works for Jesse White and last ran for office, Kane County Board as a Democrat.)

Fred showed me his gun collection during the campaign.  It included a Thompson Machine Gun for which he had to get a special permit from the Federal government.

In any event, Fred accompanied his State Rep. wife everywhere.

While he was in office and after she retired.

They vacationed all over the world, but kept local ties as the photo above at Camp Algonquin Veterans Stand Down shows.

Visitation will be held Friday, Sept. 30, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church in East Dundee on Route 72 from 4 to 8 PM.

The funeral is this coming Saturday after a visitation starting at 10 AM.

The obituary follows:

Frederic E. “Fred” Doederlein of East Dundee Frederic E. “Fred” Doederlein, 84, passed away on Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, at his home surrounded by family.

Fred was born on April 3, 1927, in Elgin. He was the son of the late Walter and Charlotte (nee Sylvester) Doederlein.

Fred was a lifelong resident of East Dundee.

He was a 1945 graduate of Dundee Community High School and a 1951 graduate of Valparaiso University, having earned a bachelor’s degree in business law.

He proudly served in the U.S. Navy during World War II aboard the U.S.S. DeHaven.

Fred was a life member and past commander of Tri-Cities Evergreen VFW Post #2298 and a member of the Carpentersville American Legion.

He was a lifelong and active member of the Bethlehem Lutheran Church in West Dundee.

Fred was owner and operator of Fred Doederlein Lumber and Fred Doederlein Enterprises.

Survivors include his wife of 58 years, DeLoris, whom he married July 17, 1953, and their children, Mark (Karen) Cole, Dr. Stephen (Bobbi Jo) Rittmann, Robert (Susie) Rittmann, Martha (Scott) Lehman and Carol Hardt.

Fred is also survived by nine grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; his sister, Kate (Jim Bernhardt) Counsell; sister-in-law, Gloria Doederlein; as well as many nieces, nephews, and countless good and faithful friends. He was preceded in death by his parents and brother, Ted.

Funeral services will be held on Saturday, Oct. 1, at 11 a.m. in the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 401 W. Main St., West Dundee, with Frank Hewitt officiating. Burial will follow with military honors in the Dundee Township East Cemetery, East Dundee.

Visitation will be held Friday, Sept. 30, at Bethlehem Lutheran Church from 4 to 8 p.m., and again on Saturday morning from 10 a.m. until the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Bethlehem Lutheran Church, The USS DeHaven Scholarship Fund or the Valparaiso University Guild. The Miller Funeral Home, West Dundee is assisting the family with all arrangements.

After activist Pat Quinn got his Cutback Amendment to the Illinois Constitution passed in 1980, Johnsburg Democratic Party State Rep. Thomas J. Hanahan didn’t stick around McHenry County.

He moved to Park Ridge. I don’t know if that happened before or after his term ended in January 1983, but that’s the address I remember when he was on the payroll of Chicago Democrat Bill Laurino, one of his legislative contemporaries not negatively affected by the imposition of single member districts.

Hanahan knew he couldn’t get elected in McHenry County running one-on-one with a Republican so he abandoned his residence of convenience. (And, no one did until Jack Franks defeated appointed State Rep. Mike Brown after a bitter 1998 primary election with Steve Verr.)

The son of a carpenters union official, Hanahan had been told to move to McHenry County in preparation for the 1996 election cycle.

Rural Union’s Billy Giblin and he represented McHenry County after the 1964 bed sheet ballot, when reapportionment was not accomplished and all candidates ran statewide.

Both Republicans and Democrats slated candidates for two-thirds of the seats. The Democrats won the legislative contest with a slate headed by untested Adlai Stevenson III.

Republican A.B. McConnell of Woodstock was the odd man out in that 1964 election, not having had enough clout to be listed in the top half of his party’s candidates.

In 1966, when three-member districts again were drawn, Hanahan beat out Giblin, who served only one term, to become McHenry County’s Democrat.

His trade union buddies helped him build the house he lived in while serving in the Illinois General Assembly.

The district was composed of all of the county and points south, west and southwest into DeKalb. The other district included Grafton and Algonquin Township and everything straight east to Lake Michigan. I can’t remember if it was one or two township high.

One of the big issues in the 1971 General Assembly was the authorization of the unionization of teachers.

It was a key issue in 1972campaign, when I ran for the GOP nomination for state representative against former Belvidere Mayor (“Get More with Les”—really; that was what his cartop said) Les Cunningham and northern Dundee Township’s R. Bruce Waddell.

Waddell had won a special election when Dundee nursery owner Jack Hill was killed zipping his motorcycle around his business property at the northeast intersection of Routes 31 and 72 and hit his head on a pipe sticking off the back end of a truck. There was a closed casket.

One of Hill’s great admirers and supporters, McHenry’s Goldwater-inspired Tom Davis ran to replace him, but Waddell won.

At any rate, in the teacher unionization fight, Hanahan was on the side of the Chicago Teachers Union and its statewide affiliate, the Illinois Federation of Teachers. After all, those unionized teachers were connected with the AFL-CIO and the Illinois Education Association wasn’t.

Only the Woodstock High School District was composed of IFT members. All the other area district’s teachers were members of the IEA.

The IEA found an Algonquin attorney named Joseph Coleman. The IEA used him to “teach Tommy a lesson.” They put a precinct worker in every precinct and gave Hanahan the scare of his life.

The election turned out this way:

Cal Skinner – 72,395 1/2
Bruce Waddell – 66,395 1/2
Tom Hanahan – 53,848 1/2
Joe Coleman – 32,226 1/2

After that, Hanahan was much more responsive to the IEA’s desires and, while I don’t know this for a fact, probably was the bridge between the IFT and the IEA for the collective bargaining bill that eventually passed.

Part 2 Tomorrow