Robert Peter Balsitis, 71, a retired comptroller for Cicero, former chairman of the Morton College Board and one-time candidate for town president of Cicero, died Sunday, Feb. 17, in Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood. Mr. Balsitis had been an accountant for several area companies, including publisher A.N. Marquis Co. and a Cicero mirror manufacturer before serving as comptroller under Town President Henry Klosak in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He also served on the Morton College Board from 1986 to 1998. In 1997, he made an unsuccessful bid to unseat Betty Loren-Maltese as town president. During a bitter campaign, Mr. Balsitis’ and Loren-Maltese’s slates traded accusations about responsibility for overpayments to the insurance firm Specialty Risk Consultants Inc. Last year, Loren-Maltese, reputed mobster Michael Spano and Emil Schullo, a former Cicero public safety director who ran on Mr. Balsitis’ slate in 1997, were all indicted on charges that the mob took over the town’s insurance business and looted it of $10 million. Well known and popular with Cicero residents, Mr. Balsitis was a perfect fit for politics, said his son Robert Paul. “Basically, he was a person who did everything possible to help people,” his son said. Born and raised in Chicago’s Brighton Park neighborhood, Mr. Balsitis moved to Cicero with his bride, Darlene Kanyuh, who was brought up there. He was an Air Force veteran who was awarded a Bronze Star during his service in the Korean War, his son said. Besides his wife and son, Mr. Balsitis is survived by a daughter, Sheryl Budzik; six sisters, Genevieve, Geraldine, Marie, Alice, Theresa and Catherine; five brothers, Thomas, Casey, Raymond, Joseph and Donald; and a grandson. Mass will be said at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday in St. Odilo Catholic Church, 2244 S. East Ave., Berwyn.
