Thirty-six years ago when he was 38 years old, Galen Gockel was first elected by Oak Parkers to represent them-at that time on the District 97 school board. This week, at age 74, Gockel wraps up his second go-round on the Oak Park village board.
This is a good man who has been at, or near, the heart of every key issue in this village since it was reinvented in the late 1960s as a progressive town with passion for racial diversity, good government and independent Democrats. To me, and to many, Galen Gockel embodies an ideal of public service-thoughtful, civil, sometimes bold, sometimes cautious. He actually enjoys listening more than talking and while he is comfortable in the spotlight, he doesn’t have some sad craving for it. He knows and values the history of our town as well as anyone but has no need to be caught in an unchanging time warp.
“The youngsters moving into town, the ones just making partner at Winston and Strawn, the dermatologists,” he says, “they don’t have any idea why their houses are so valuable.” Gockel knows why east side houses that sold for $23,000 when he joined the school board in 1971 now routinely sell for $650,000. He understands the racial fear that drove prices down and the bold choices that put a floor under the near panic. He talks about the roles of the Housing Center and the Residence Corporation in building demand for Oak Park housing.
And he talks about the controversy in the schools as he chaired the committee that “steered through” the conversion of two of Oak Park’s elementary schools into racially diverse junior highs. “Yes,” he says with an ironic laugh, “we destroyed the neighborhood school system.” And saved the village in the process.
“In that time,” he says, “everyone banded together. Everyone subordinated their differences, and some were pretty profound. We had a common enemy. Once that battle was won, or perceived to be won, all the old divisions could blossom.”
As we talk, Gockel is generous in throwing out the names of all the colleagues he served with and the conversation turned to the differences between board service three decades back and today. “There was much more of a ‘we’ feeling among trustees in those days. There were common goals.” Gockel says he is heartened when people approach him and say they appreciate his willingness to come back to the village board as an appointee to fill out the term abandoned by Trustee Geoff Baker. “The words I hear most often,” says Gockel, “are that I’m civilized and thoughtful. And they’re drawing a contrast to the people who have left the board [recently].”
In a later e-mail follow-up to my question about the qualities he felt made him an effective trustee, Gockel wrote, “I’m not genetically angry. It is not always true that people with authority or power are, ipso facto, to be confronted or opposed.”
Gockel, who like many old-time VMA members has had issues with that group over the past decade, is enthused about the newly elected, and VMA-dominated, village board. “People will respect this board even if they disagree with them. They’ll respect their demeanor. This board will be deliberative and not let side issues get in the way.”
For his part, Gockel is ready to leave elected politics behind. “It is time to turn it over to the next group, the next generation,” he says. He said he is hopeful that the issues of race and diversity which ignited his interest in Oak Park activism will continue in the form of “intergenerational hand-me-downs.” He said it could not be a coincidence that the Oak Park village board and the District 97 school board are currently led by David Pope and Carolyn Newberry Schwartz, the children of two of his colleagues at the ramparts, Joan Pope and Louisa Newberry. “The old flames are being kept alive,” he says.
Gockel has always had a range of other local activist ties. He served multiple terms as the Oak Park Township assessor and along with his wife, Marge, was an early investor and long-time board member at Wednesday Journal, Inc. Now his attention will turn more fully to his volunteer activities at Festival Theatre.
While younger people take over, Gockel makes the case for old souls. “Older people have more years to reflect on the times when they were wrong. Thus they need not be doctrinaire going forward. … Being wrong is always possible. Youngsters [i.e. those under 45] do not have the years behind them to identify their errors, so they can charge ahead, assuming they’re right.”
