Oscar Ovid D'Angelo 1931-2016

Oscar Ovid D'Angelo, 84, a lifelong advocate for his beloved Little Italy neighborhood, died peacefully Sunday, August 7, 2016 at home and in the loving care of his wife Paula following his long battle with prostate cancer. Mr. D'Angelo was an accomplished attorney, an advisor to major institutions from Hilton Hotels Corp. to Rush University Medical Center, a confidante of Chicago mayors and counselor to city agencies. But it was his tireless leadership of civic and neighborhood improvement efforts that won him a special place in the hearts of many on Chicago's Near West Side.

Born in 1931 to Italian immigrants -- late Luigi and Linda (nee DeLuca) D'Angelo - he was preceded in death by infant brother Ovidio, and in 1991 by his beloved brother, Dino J. D'Angelo, a highly successful lawyer and real estate developer. Survivors include his wife Paula (nee Grespan), loving nephew Louis D'Angelo, loving nieces Linda Logan, Denise Nora, Lisa D'Angelo, many loving grand nieces and nephews, numerous loving cousins, and his loving sisters-in-law Georgette (Becky) D'Angelo and Rebecca Grespan.

As a boy Mr. D'Angelo worked in his parents' storefront grocery near the corner of Laflin and Flournoy Streets making deliveries and cleaning fresh chickens. He would later rehab that same 10-apartment walk-up and lived there in an expanded suite for the rest of his life. Other tenants included aunts, cousins and countrymen from the family's hometown in the Abruzzi Mountains east of Rome. Mr. D'Angelo attended McLaren Grammar School and the University of Chicago Lab School before earning a bachelor's from the U. of C. At DePaul University Law School he wrote for the Law Review and after earning his J.D. He served for two years as a legal officer with the U.S. Army Bad Nauheim, Germany.

Returning to Chicago in 1958 he joined his brother's firm of Fiffer & D'Angelo. Later he became a senior partner at Friedman & Koven and finally Altheimer & Gray. It was his enthusiasm for and knowledge of his neighborhood, however, that in 1960 prompted then-Mayor Richard J. Daley to appoint Mr. D'Angelo chairman of the Near West Side Conservation Community Council. Thus began a life's work of preservation and redevelopment, a turning back of impending blight and abandonment and, in time, the blossom of one of Chicago's most successful ethnic neighborhoods. Over a span of 30 years Mr. D'Angelo served as president of the Near West Side Conservation Community Committee, the board of St. Mary's High School for Girls and the lay advisory board of Columbus-Cuneo-Cabrini Hospital. He was on the governing boards of the Duncan YMCA, the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation the local Selective Service board of appeals.

Educationally, Mr. D'Angelo led efforts to create the Andrew Jackson Language Academy and provided seed money for Francis Xavier Warde School. Early on, and more controversially, he defended the University of Illinois Chicago campus, construction of which displaced many families, but which became a powerful engine driving the larger neighborhood's comeback. In 1989 Mayor Richard M. Daley and the City Council honored him by naming the large landscaped traffic island at the foot of the Eisenhower Expressway the Oscar D'Angelo Park. In 2005 he was accorded the Joseph Cardinal Bernardin Humanitarian Award by the Joint Civic Committee of Italian Americans. Despite his many official accomplishments, many in Little Italy knew Oscar best as the animated, mustachioed dynamo who led a crew of public housing kids every Saturday as they hauled trash out of vacant lots, parks and riverbanks. All to bring beauty to the city he loved. To our dear Oscar we say Arrivederci! You will be greatly missed.

Services have been held.