Former Oak Forest mayor, clerk, trustee

James W. Jesk Jr. was mayor of Oak Forest from 1975 until 1985, and before that had been a village trustee beginning in 1965 and the town’s elected clerk in 1973.

“Jim had … deep roots in the city and he was an excellent public servant,” said former Oak Forest Mayor Dennis M. O’Connor, 82, who now lives in Temecula, California. “We were sometimes competitors, but when he became the clerk, he was so supportive of what I felt was good for the city, and so we worked pretty well together. I was really impressed with Jim, because he kind of accepted me and I accepted him and I think we made a good team.”

Jesk, 89, died of pneumonia Nov. 10 at Meadowbrook Rehabilitation Center in La Grange, his brother said. A Lemont resident since 2001, Jesk earlier had battled COVID-19, his brother said.

Public service was in Jesk’s blood. He was the son of James Jesk Sr., who was Bremen Township supervisor from 1949 until 1996 and also was Oak Forest’s first postmaster and started the town’s fire department. As a child, the younger Jesk briefly lived in Midlothian and Blue Island before moving with his family to Oak Forest. He attended St. Christopher School in Midlothian for grammar school and then Thornton Township High School in Harvey.

Jesk then spent several years in the U.S. Navy and before attending Roosevelt University.

Most of his professional career was with Orland

Park-based telecommunication equipment manufacturer Andrew Corporation, rising to the level of vice president of sales before he retired in 1993.

He then formed his own company, Deerfield Construction Group, which started as a subcontractor installing hardware, radar and microwave antenna dishes, including those manufactured by Andrew. About five years ago, Jesk sold Deerfield Construction to two grandsons, who continue to operate the Lockport-based company, which now installs cellular towers.

Jesk ventured into public service in his early 30s. He was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Oak Forest Village Board in 1965 after Trustee Albert Junker died while in office.

Oak Forest saw explosive growth during the 1960s, with its population rising from 3,724 in 1960 to 19,271 in 1970. As a village trustee, Jesk helped shepherd the community through significant growth in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Jesk won election to a full term as trustee in 1967 and then ran unsuccessfully for village president in 1969. He declined to seek another term as trustee in 1971. By 1973, Oak Forest had reorganized from being a village to being a city, and Jesk made a successful bid for city clerk in 1973.

In late 1974, O’Connor resigned as Oak Forest’s mayor to take a job in California. O’Connor appointed an acting mayor, Martin Norville, and then a special election was held in spring 1975 to fill out the remaining two years of O’Connor’s mayoral term. Jesk ran and won, defeating Norville by a 3-2 margin.

“I was very glad when he became mayor,” O’Connor said. “Jim came from the older part of Oak Forest, and he was an excellent representative of the older part of the community.”

“Public service motivated my brother, and it was demonstrated to him by (our) father,” Robin Jesk said. “My brother saw how (our father) helped people and tried to do the right thing.”

Jesk won reelection in 1977 and 1981, but was defeated in 1985 by James Malecky, losing by just 510 votes out of 6,500 cast. At that point, Jesk plunged more of his energies into his business, his brother said. He also became an avid Chicago Blackhawks fan and more involved with the team’s charitable activities.

In his later years, Jesk took up harness racing and in 2003 started a stable, Sawgrass Farms, in Crete, where he would board horses owned by others. The stable was located next to Balmoral Park, which held its final harness races at the end of 2015.

“He loved his horse racing, and he loved his hockey,” Jesk’s brother said.

Jesk’s wife, Joyce, died in 2013. In addition to his brother, he is survived by a daughter, Kimberly Lindemann; 11 grandchildren; 11 great-grandchildren; two other brothers, Dale and John; and a sister, Sharon Poe.

Funeral services will were held Wednesday at Kurtz Memorial Chapel in Frankfort.