Art Jones, a former Forest Park resident whose service to his community has been felt across the village and over decades, died March 30. He was 81.
Jones was a committed educator in Forest Park and other suburban communities. He was named superintendent of Forest Park’s District 91 elementary schools while he was still in his 20s. He later served as school superintendent in Glen Ellyn and in Lake Forest, where he led the district after a major test-score scandal.
After leaving his work in education, Jones went on to become Forest Park Bank’s executive vice president of business development and community relations. He stayed in that role until 2006, when he retired and moved to South Carolina with his wife, Sally.
During his time in Forest Park, Jones was also a key player in the redevelopment of Madison Street in the early 2000s. In the mid-1990s, Jones co-founded Windmills LLC, with other businesspeople in town. The corporation bought up several vacant or underused retail properties along Madison Street and held onto them until the right merchant for each space came along.
Jones was also a member of the Main Street Redevelopment Association, which partnered heavily with the village and Forest Park Chamber of Commerce to revitalize the village’s downtown before it merged with the chamber in 2008.
The chamber’s executive director, Laurie Kokenes, described Jones — whom she had known since she started working in Forest Park in 1975 — as one of Main Street’s “founding fathers.”
“He was just admired and respected by a wide range of people,” she said. “He was very much dedicated to this community in all ways.”
Tim Gillian, a former Forest Park village administrator and council member, called Jones “a driving force” behind the improvements that “made Madison Street a great shopping destination.”
“I was fortunate enough to spend many hours in meetings with the engineers and Art … just being around him and learning from him,” said Gillian, who was also Jones’ next-door neighbor when Jones lived in Forest Park. “He was just a wonderful, intelligent, caring individual who loved putting his mark on the things that he touched.”
While most people knew Jones as calm, professional and “a real gentleman,” Kokenes said few people saw his funny personality beneath the steady presence. She recalled a time when for the Chamber of Commerce’s annual auction event, Jones and longtime Forest Parker Bob Senechalle offered to do the highest bidder’s lawn work.
“They came to our house, came to my house — I bid on the prize, and I won the prize,” Kokenes said. “His wife and everyone’s wives came, and we sat in my yard and watched them trim our hedges and pull weeds. It was just a lot of fun.”
Between his professional exterior and his ability to “let his hair down,” as Kokenes put it, Jones was a valuable asset to Forest Park and its community.
“Forest Park is a community that, 25 years later, is still benefitting from the leadership that Art Jones brought,” Gillian said.
“I just don’t think there’ll ever be another Art Jones. He’s just one of a kind, and it was an honor and a pleasure to work with him,” Kokenes said. “He was a treasure.”
Funeral services are being arranged by his family and will be included in next week’s Review.