Former Lake County Mayor Dies Of Lung Cancer

MUNDELEIN, IL — A former local leader has died of lung cancer at age 81.

Colin McRase, who served as the mayor of Mundelein from 1977 to 1989, died at a medical facility in Lindenhurst surrounded by family, according to a news release from the village of Mundelein. McRae also spent some time on the Lake County Board and as the president of Lake County Forest Preserve District Board.

He most recently lived part-time in Grayslake and part-time in Florida, village officials said.

Also known as "Butch" by those closest to him, McRae is being remembered as a wise, down to earth and competitive and as a man who put his heart into everything he did.

“Those who knew him saw his strength, kindness and unwavering dedication to family, friends and neighbors,” said Mundelein Trustee Tim Wilson.

Wilson graduated from what was then Libertyville-Fremont Consolidated High School in 1961 and from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1967 with a bachelor’s degree in economics. He then served in the U.S. Army.

McRae married his wife, Mary, in 1970, and they had a daughter, Lynne. He went on to work in the contract services field and then the real estate industry.

He served as a Mundelein trustee from 1975 to 1977. He was elected mayor in 1977 and held that post for three terms until he chose not to seek reelection in 1989, according to a news release from the village of Mundelein.

During McRae’s mayoral tenure, Mundelein launched the county’s first municipal recycling program. The village’s leaf-pickup program began during his time as mayor as well; it, too, was a first in Lake County.

McRae was credited by current Mayor Steve Lentz with championing the installation of new water mains in the village — a move that eventually led to Mundelein getting drinking water from Lake Michigan through the Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency.

McRae turned his sights to a county office in 1990, capturing a seat on the county board and the forest district board as a Republican representing the Mundelein area. He held that post until 1994, serving as the forest board’s leader for the last two years of his tenure, according to a news release from the village of Mundelein.

McRae was seen as a pro-development county board member, and his 1994 primary loss to fellow Republican Diana O’Kelly — who now serves as Fremont Township supervisor — was at the start of a pro-conservation movement that subsequently swept through the two boards.

McRae’s other public service included work with the Mundelein School District 75 Educational Foundation, the Central Lake County YMCA board, Leaders are Readers and the Boy Scouts.
McRae Lane on the village’s northwest side honors him.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been set, village officials said Monday.