Regarded generally as someone with a focus on the future–“a visionary”–former DuPage County Board Chairman Jack T. Knuepfer long has had a scholarly interest in the past coupled with a profound appreciation for the practical applications that the lessons of history can impart.
“What’s exciting is what’s ahead of you. I’ve never really looked back,” Knuepfer is apt to say.
During his tenure as board chairman (1978-1990), which coincided with an unprecedented growth spurt for the county, Knuepfer is credited with forcing the modernization of a county government mired in the past.
As he was about to put a voter-induced close to a career in local, county and state government that covered 36 years in parts of five decades, a former ally said of Knuepfer that “He dragged DuPage County, kicking and screaming, into the 20th Century.”
“He pulled the county along,” said current board chairman Robert Schillerstrom, of Naperville, a board member under Knuepfer.
In the county’s 1990 Republican primary a majority of voters apparently concluded Knuepfer was pulling too far, too fast, at too high a cost to them.
Disgruntled taxpayers were looking for a political target, and there was none bigger in the county 10 years ago than Knuepfer. No DuPage official before or since has made bigger, bolder decisions.
After three terms as chairman of what was then the state’s fastest-growing county, with some of the fastest-growing property tax bills, Knuepfer was gone.
“People don’t like to make decisions, particularly when they involve money. They would rather study them. To move forward, you’ve got to make some decisions,” he said at the time.
The Elmhurst Republican, now 79, says much the same thing today.
“It’s a beating that you take, and anybody who is in political office will find somebody who disagrees with them and disagrees vociferously,” Knuepfer said in a recent interview.
“It’s tough going (politically). When you want to widen a road you need money, and you also get all the local people up in arms against you. So there’s not a lot of political hay to be gathered in building highways. Everybody likes (Interstate Highway) 355, but nobody wanted to take the heat for it.”
His political career cut short by voters, Knuepfer failed to gain home-rule status for the county and watched as plans for a proposed Fox Valley Expressway died on the political vine and his vision for a county focal point, a civic-center complex, go unrequited.
All three initiatives are needed for DuPage County to meet the demands of the next 10 to 20 years, Knuepfer argues.
“I had an agenda to do things that got broken up when I lost the election in 1990. I had a few other things that I wanted to make certain happen. Some did, and some didn’t,” he said.
Long gone from elective office and the nitty-gritty of partisan politics that, at best, he grudgingly tolerated, Knuepfer has remained active in business in the county and with travel. He also has continued to lend his support to pet civic causes, such as construction of a DuPage veterans memorial and enhanced recreational trails.
His only official role in government affairs is an advisory one, as a member of the DuPage County Regional Planning Commission.
Whether fan or foe, most generally recognize Knuepfer as being among modern-day DuPage County’s most influential figures.
Even as critics accused him of being insular and dictatorial in his fast-paced management style, the words “bold” and “far-sighted” have been used more often to describe his legacy.
For better or worse, some of Knuepfer’s political handiwork can be seen today in the form of projects such as the crowded North-South Tollway and the steady flow of Lake Michigan from Chicago.
“The vision was very clear. The objective was very clear. And he really left a mark on the county with those two key projects,” said planner Dalip Bammi, who retired in 1999 after 29 years with the county development department, the last 12 as director.
“In addition, his management style and his ability to look at the larger picture were always very admirable from my perspective,” Bammi said. “He truly was a visionary in that respect. He was looking at the long-term benefit and direction of the county.”
In addition to major infrastructure improvements, the Knuepfer era also saw a significant contribution made to the county and the region by way of his commitment to comprehensive planning, said John Swanson, deputy director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission in Chicago.
“Jack certainly recognized the need to develop the county’s capacities to do long-range planning. As a result, you saw a number of innovations in DuPage County that I think were certainly within the vanguard of planning in Illinois,” Swanson said.
“You saw the storm-water management plan that the county prepared, which was a very ambitious undertaking. You saw a much more aggressive transportation plan and program. And what I particularly thought was a valuable lesson for us was (Knuepfer’s recognition of) the need for cooperative county and municipal planning or the initiation of what was referred to as the cluster-planning process.
“Now we see this being emulated in other counties as well, where they’re also trying to bring the counties and municipalities together to work on a development framework for the county and consistent and compatible county and municipal plans.”
