The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award - 2006
John M. Burke
Nominated By The Honorable Anthony Arredia
Des Plaines
John M. Burke
As a resident of Des Plaines for over 25 years, John M. Burke has contributed to the quality of life for the whole community through his extraordinary efforts on behalf of the Des Plaines Public Library and the Des Plaines Historical Society. Mr. Burke began his involvement with the Library in 1992 by giving a series of stump speeches throughout the community to urge a "yes" vote for a new library building. He was rewarded not with a new library but with an appointment to serve as library trustee, which he did enthusiastically for ten years. After a second failed referendum in 1995, Mr. Burke creatively—and successfully—proposed building a new library as the "anchor tenant" of the city's downtown redevelopment project, demonstrating to visitors and residents alike that Des Plaines invests in the intellectual and aesthetic life of the community. Mr. Burke's long and productive collaboration with the Des Plaines Historical Society began in 1994, when he contacted the organization for assistance with researching an Italianate house scheduled for demolition. He is now President of the Historical Society's Board of Trustees and is very active in its work, most recently taking hundreds of photographs of buildings to document for the Society the progress of downtown redevelopment.Return to the archive listing for The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award - 2006
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