Lawrence Barroll “Larry” Christmas, 86, former city and regional planner and president of the village of Oak Park, died on Jan. 23, 2022.
Born on Dec. 30, 1935 in Philadelphia, he was raised mostly in Washington D.C. where he attended Sidwell Friends School. He graduated from Haverford College in 1958 and earned a master’s degree at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1962.
He began his career in city planning in Chicago in 1963. He advanced to top positions in his field, becoming executive director of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council starting in 1973 and executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) starting in 1980. NIPC at that time was known for excellence in research and forecasting populations, jobs, and economic growth with results useful to local governments. NIPC has since been merged with the Chicago Area Transportation Study and today is called the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).
When he retired from planning in 1992, he was asked by the Village Manager Association of Oak Park to run for president of the village of Oak Park. He won the election and served as village president from 1993 to 1997.
Among his retirement activities he served as a docent for the Ernest Hemingway Foundation in Oak Park. He was still conducting tours of the Hemingway Birth Home until a few weeks ago. Other longtime hobbies included tennis, golf, and growing indigenous prairie plants at his farm in Michigan. He was also a volunteer dog-walker for the Animal Care League.
Larry Christmas is survived by his wife Sylvia, plus children and grandchildren. They are planning a celebration of his life to be held in the spring, details to be announced later.
The village of Oak Park issued a proclamation to make January 31, 2022 a day of remembrance for Larry Christmas.
In lieu of flowers, donations to the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park are welcome. The website has a button for gifts in memory of Larry Christmas: www.hemingwaybirthplace.com.
