County boardmember in Joliet, longtime community advocate

County by surprise Thursday after County Board member Frank Stewart was found dead in his Joliet home.

Colleagues called the late 66-year-old politician passion- ate but gentle, and they said he ran for posts on the county board and a local school board simply to help others.

“Anyone he could help, he reached out to them,” said cousin Yvette Foster. “Young and old. Everyone.”

Fellow county board members learned the news Thursday as they gathered for a monthly Forest Pre- serve District meeting.

Mr. Stewart lived alone, county officials said, but had one son as well as family in Ohio, California and Washington, D.C. He was a diabet- ic, and he was on a waiting list for a kidney transplant. Still, the Will County coroner’s office couldn’t offer an official cause of death Thursday afternoon.