Over the past four decades, the Historical Society of Forest Park journey has been no stranger to change and transition. Here are some things that we want to share with our members and all residents young and old that both live or have lived in Forest Park.

Our organization understands and is committed to our mission of sharing local history. In order to do that and more, we want to encourage the community to become members. We want your stories. Your participation gives us genuine direction and is the lifeblood to what we do. Building membership to the historical society is our focus.

Count on us to be rolling out communication to inform you of new programs and partnerships. In mid-October we had a very productive meeting with Rodger Brayden of the Forest Park Public Library. We discussed our mutual history. More importantly, we discussed our mutual futures.

On an organizational level our three “r’s” are revisit, reinvent, and rebuild. The 20th century identity of the historical society was closely tied in public image and location to the library. That relationship has been dormant in recent years. We would like to rebuild that partnership, specifically in communication of our mission of sharing local history and networking. Low cost or no cost links on our websites, historical programs, and a focus to literacy could be our mutual goals.

I want to thank voting members, all my fellow board members, Elizabeth Carpenter, Jean Lotus, and Gerald Lordan and welcome newly elected director Herman Ziebell. I especially want to thank departing board members Ken Knack and Michael Thompson for their exemplary volunteer and historian work. I owe my gratitude to Augie Aleksy who invited me to get involved in 2012. His bookstore is a great place to exchange Forest Park stories and history. Augie is a great and friendly ambassador of Forest Park and is gracious in being Vice President. I also want to thank our Executive Director Diane Grah for her expertise and hard work.

This Saturday, you will not want to miss the next historical society event: The Historical Society of Forest Park presents a new book and world premiere adaptation of the Des Plaines River Anthology Oct. 26 at the Park District Administration Building. (See our Forest Park Review blog for details).

Hope to see and talk with future fellow historians soon.

Bob Cox, President

Historical Society
of Forest Park