Dale Berman — Kane County Board member for District 2 and former four-term village president of North Aurora — died Thursday morning at the age of 91, Kane County officials said in a news release.
Berman joined the Kane County Board in 2021 after being elected to the post in November 2020, according to past reporting. He was the current chair of the board’s Finance Committee.
Before that, he served as North Aurora’s village president from 1985 to 1989, and then again from 2009 to 2021. He also previously served as a village trustee.
Berman was a longtime North Aurora resident, having moved there in 1962, according to past reporting.
“Dale was an incredibly special person,” current North Aurora Village President Mark Gaffino said in a news release on Thursday. “He gave his life to others and North Aurora has lost a truly beloved and valued member of our community. Dale’s love of the village was only surpassed by his love for his family.”
Berman is survived by his wife of more than six decades, Mary, four daughters and many grandchildren, according to the county.
Gaffino told The Beacon-News that he and Berman had similar priorities, and that he was able to “kind of hit the ground running” when he took over as village president from Berman.
And their friendship extended beyond the walls of Village Hall, according to Gaffino. He said that he and his son would attend Northern Illinois University football games with Berman.
“He was 91, but he didn’t act like a 91-year-old person,” Gaffino said. “He acted way younger. … And you would think somebody older would be like, ‘Oh, we don’t like this, and … we used to do it this way.’ But he was always supportive (of) new ideas.”
Following his decades of public service to the village, in 2021 the North Aurora village trustees named the grain silo along the Fox River Berman Tower in his honor, according to past reporting. Gaffino cited the idea to light up the silo as one of Berman’s major accomplishments.
Just last month, Berman received North Aurora’s first Community Challenge Coin, which recognizes those who “go above and beyond in their efforts to make North Aurora a place we are all proud to call home,” per the village.
“It’s good we have people like that in our communities,” Gaffino said of Berman.
The village said it will be lowering the North Aurora village flag at Village Hall to honor Berman, and that Berman Tower will be going dark.
Berman was also active in local organizations like the Fox Valley Park District, Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, North Aurora Lions Club, Waubonsee Community College Foundation board, Northern Illinois University Alumni Board and Union Congregational Church, per the news release from the county.
He also sold and installed the county’s first computer system for the Circuit Clerk’s Office when he was working as an IBM engineer and salesman, according to the county.
“He was never self-serving,” Kane County Board Chair Corinne Pierog said on Thursday. “He was always a public servant in the true essence of the word.”
She recalled Berman and herself joining the board during the COVID-19 pandemic, and pointed to the challenges of figuring out how to serve county residents during that time. He took over as the Finance Committee chair in 2020, she said.
She described him as “conscientious and very thoughtful” as the committee’s chair, and said he worked with a bipartisan approach, “always taking a look at what is best for Kane County, without any political decision-making on that at all.”
Pierog recalled a favorite memory in which Berman compared the annual cost to a homeowner of the county increasing its property tax levy by the Consumer Price Index as the price of two martinis.
“And then I found out that he doesn’t actually drink martinis,” she laughed. “He drank bourbon.”
And she believes his legacy will live on in both Kane County and North Aurora.
“Unfortunately, we did not have the time with him that he spent in North Aurora,” Pierog said. “But his sensitivity and sensibility will remain with (the county board) for years to come, without question.”
mmorrow@chicagotribune.com
