093_SR0186
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1 SENATE RESOLUTION
2 WHEREAS, The members of the Senate of the State of
3 Illinois were saddened to learn of the death of John K "Jack"
4 Powell of Naperville, on May 7, 2003; and
5 WHEREAS, A native of New Jersey, Mr. Powell attended
6 Rutgers University for two years before entering World War II
7 as a bombardier in the Army Air Forces; and
8 WHEREAS, He returned to Rutgers and graduated in 1948
9 with a bachelor's degree in business; and
10 WHEREAS, That same year, he met Judith at a summer job in
11 Lake Placid, New York, and they married; he worked for
12 insurance companies in New Jersey and New York before moving
13 on to insurance jobs in Dallas, Massachusetts, and Colorado;
14 the family returned to New Jersey in 1965; and
15 WHEREAS, A few years later the Powell family moved to
16 Naperville when Mr. Powell was named to head Metropolitan
17 Life Insurance's Midwest region real estate finance
18 department, headquartered in Oak Brook; he retired in 1985 as
19 vice president of real estate investment and financing for
20 the Midwest region; and
21 WHEREAS, Through countless hours of volunteer work, John
22 Powell demonstrated his enthusiasm for his adopted hometown
23 of Naperville; and
24 WHEREAS, In 1973, he began to work with the Naperville
25 Heritage Society which began to plat and plan for Naper
26 Settlement; using his talents as a master gardener, Mr.
27 Powell laid out the landscaping and planted more than 200
28 trees and bushes; and
29 WHEREAS, Mr. Powell served as the third president of the
30 Naperville Heritage Society from 1980 to 1982 and remained on
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1 the board for a number of years; he also helped to secure the
2 42 paintings by artist Les Schrader that depict Naperville's
3 growth and development; and
4 WHEREAS, Mr. Powell served on Edward Hospital's board of
5 directors from 1987 to 1997; as an Evening Kiwanis Club
6 member, he started the free hospital shuttle that Kiwanis
7 subsidizes; and
8 WHEREAS, One of the first members of the Riverwalk
9 Commission, Mr. Powell also volunteered for Books on Wheels
10 and read to first-graders at Scott School in Naperville; in
11 1993, he received the Jaycees' Outstanding Senior Citizen
12 award for his community efforts; and
13 WHEREAS, Mr. Powell was an elder in Knox Presbyterian
14 Church and volunteered extensively at the Morton Arboretum;
15 and
16 WHEREAS, Even with all these pursuits, his passion was
17 his family; they traveled to Europe, China, Russia, Africa,
18 and South America and took slides that he presented once a
19 month to the Ecumenical Adult Day Care Center for seniors in
20 The Alfred Rubin Riverwalk Community Center; and
21 WHEREAS, The passing of John K. "Jack" Powell has been
22 deeply felt by all who knew him, especially his wife, Judith;
23 his sons, John K. Jr. and Ross; his brother, Thomas; and his
24 four grandchildren; therefore be it
25 RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-THIRD GENERAL
26 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing
27 of John K. "Jack" Powell and express our sincere and deepest
28 sympathy to his family and friends; and be it further
29 RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
30 presented to the family of John K. "Jack" Powell as an
31 expression of our condolences during their time of
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1 bereavement.