Nanci Vanderweel, a trailblazer in Northwest suburban politics and among the first women elected to public office in the region, has died.
The former Elk Grove Township supervisor, township trustee and Elk Grove Village trustee passed peacefully Saturday, according to her family. She was 87.
Vanderweel was 33 when she became the first woman elected to the village board in 1971. The top vote-getter in that election, Vanderweel ran on the campaign slogan, “A woman trustee, why not?”
Upon her retirement as township supervisor in 2013, she told the Daily Herald it wasn’t easy getting others to take her seriously during the early days of her political career.
Nanci Vanderweel served on the Elk Grove Village board from 1971 to 1981.
Daily Herald File Photo, 2016
“We were a fighting bunch,” Vanderweel said. “Most of the men were chauvinists on the board. It took some getting used to for them. They weren’t the good ol’ boys anymore.”
New Mayor Charles Zettek infamously told her, “What the (heck) am I supposed to do with a broad on the board?” Vanderweel said.
She and Zettek were on opposing sides of a zoning controversy years earlier, when Vanderweel led hundreds of residents in opposition to a proposed industrial development. The board eventually voted down the proposal.
As a trustee, she eventually gained the respect of Zettek.
“I said, ‘You either get used to it or you don’t. That’s up to you, but I’m here as a duly elected official. And another thing, I don’t make coffee.’”
“We ended up best of friends,” she added.
Vanderweel first caught the eye of then-Mayor Jack Paul, who appointed her to the plan commission in 1969. She then was elected to three terms as village trustee, serving until 1981. At the time, she and Virginia Hayter, then a Hoffman Estates village trustee who later became mayor, were among a handful of women in the room at Illinois Municipal League conferences.
Nanci Vanderweel, the first woman elected to the Elk Grove Village board in 1971, is shown here meeting future President Ronald Reagan in 1976.
Daily Herald File Photo
She got back into politics in 1986 with her election to the township board, then broke barriers again by becoming the township’s first female supervisor in 2006.
While a township trustee and member of the board of directors of Alexian Brothers Medical Center in 1987, Vanderweel was the driving force behind the addition of an interchange at Biesterfield Road and Interstate 290 — a crucial transportation access point for the hospital.
She also started a community blood drive program that still exists, and chaired the task force that established the social services organization now known as the Kenneth Young Center.
The author of a township history book, published for its sesquicentennial in 2000, Vanderweel arranged for the move of the Victorian-era farmhouse from its original location to where it now resides on Biesterfield.
As Elk Grove Township supervisor, Nanci Vanderweel started a free library, which earned the township a Governor’s Home Town Award in 2008.
MADHU KRISHNAMURTHY/mkrishnamurthy@dailyherald.com
She also helped establish the Community Character Coalition of Elk Grove, the local chapter of a nonprofit service organization that promotes character and encourages volunteerism. She was involved in other community groups, boards and commissions “too numerous to mention,” said her daughter, Kitty Vanderweel Weiner.
“Everywhere I turn in this town, I see the work she had accomplished and am grateful for her gifts and vision,” Weiner, who is now the village’s plan commission chair, wrote on Facebook.
The Vanderweels have been longtime political advisers to and helped run the campaigns of Mayor Craig Johnson. He said Nanci’s dedication to public service will always be remembered.
“Nanci was a trailblazer and was unwavering in her dedication to our community,” Johnson said. “She was a champion for numerous initiatives that residents benefit from to this day.”
Representing the Community Character Coalition of Elk Grove, Nanci Vanderweel read a September 11th commemoration during a ceremony at VFW Post 9248 in 2016.
Daily Herald File Photo 2016
She is survived by her husband Leonard, who moved with her and their daughter, then age 3, from Chicago to Elk Grove Village in 1964. She also leaves behind two grandchildren and a great-granddaughter.
Visitation is scheduled from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday at Grove Memorial Chapel, 1199 S. Arlington Heights Road in Elk Grove Village, with prayers at 7 p.m. In lieu of flowers donations can be made to the Kenneth Young Center or Community Character Coalition Scholarship Fund.