In Tribute: Stan Kennedy, former village manager for Wilmette, Highland Park

(Editor’s Note: This memorial article was written by former Wilmette Village President and local historian John Jacoby for the Village of Wilmette, and it is being republished with the author’s permission.)

Stan Kennedy was Wilmette’s eighth village manager, serving the community from 1974 to 1990. He had previously been assistant manager at Sidney, Nebraska, and Ottumwa, Iowa; and manager at Dalhart, Texas; Alamogordo, New Mexico; and Highland Park, Illinois.

Kennedy studied public administration during his collegiate years at the suggestion of his high school sweetheart’s father, who predicted that the council-manager form of local government had a bright future. 

His appointment as Wilmette manager was recommended by his predecessor, Armon Lund, who conducted a nationwide search. The Village Board unanimously agreed with Lund’s recommendation. During his 16 years with Wilmette, Kennedy also served as president of the International City/County Management Association, the leading professional association of municipal managers. He resigned his position as village manager in 1990 for private sector employment. 

A major conflict that sometimes arises with the council-manager form of government is when the manager intrudes into the council’s policy-making function or council members intrude into the manager’s day-to-day administrative function. Commenting in 2015 about his experience in Wilmette, Kennedy said that he couldn’t recall “any major issues where the policymakers (President and Trustees) and the Village Manager and staff felt they had pressure or interference in doing their job.”

If conflict arose, he said, it was handled “in a professional and courteous manner.” Kennedy added, “My main instruction to staff was to implement policies decided by the elected officials as if they were their own ideas and not to second-guess reasons for those policies.” As long as the policies were legal and emanated from a majority of the board, “then the administration was to be done in a professional manner.” 

When it came to hiring staff, Kennedy said, “I do not remember any one single situation in my tenure in Wilmette where I felt the board or a single member tried to influence the appointment of any employee. I think the tone was set by the three Village presidents that I worked with, and this was a major factor in the working conditions for the administrative staff.”

Kennedy listed the following achievements of Village government during his tenure as village manager: the Village stopped paving over the brick streets with asphalt; strong budgetary controls were implemented and the budget was balanced every year; restoration of the old-fashioned ornamental street light system was begun; a new village hall was built; the snow removal process was improved; the street and sewer maintenance programs were strengthened; a new water transmission line was built from the water plant to the public works facility and a new underground storage tank was built, both of which added to the system’s capacity to provide water to Glenview and beyond; highly professional staff members were hired, several of whom eventually became village or city managers themselves; and Wilmette emerged as a place where highly qualified professionals wanted to work. 

Kennedy was particularly proud of the fact that when he resigned in 1990, his staff included three women whom he had recruited. They went on to become successful managers themselves, one in Wilmette (Heidi Voorhees) and two in other communities — this at a time when there were few women in the profession. 

The Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan community newsroom that relies on reader support to fuel its independent local journalism.

Subscribe to The Record to fund responsible news coverage for your community.

Already a subscriber? You can make a tax-deductible donation at any time.