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NO. 140 | A JWC MEDIA PUBLICATION
NEWS
Grandfathers devoted to students — and each other BY SELENA FRAGASSI
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arty Polin and Seymour Weiner are not only friends to the hundreds of elementary children they engage with every week as “grandpa volunteers” at Northbrook’s Wescott School — they have also been best friends to each other for more than 70 years. “In all these years we’ve never had an argument or falling out. If you boil it down, it’s because we really love one another,” says “Grandpa Marty” Polin about “Grandpa See,” as they are known to the students in their respective first- and third-grade classes. The school celebrated the duo in a patriotic assembly this spring that both honored their service during World War II and celebrated their birthdays — which is where their story begins. Polin and Weiner were born only four days apart in 1927 (they’re now 88). Both grew up on Chicago’s West Side, but they did not meet until freshman year at Crane Tech High School in 1940.
“We both had a common interest in architecture and took drawing for three years, so we were together a lot in high school,” recalls Polin. The two lived together for one semester in college before being separated by World War II. While Polin was drafted into the Navy and lived at Naval Station Great Lakes, Weiner was dispatched to South Carolina to join the Marines. The geographical distance caused their one and only drifting apart. Neither can recall exactly how long it lasted or exactly how they reconnected (“You’re asking two 88-year-olds to remember details,” Weiner jokes), but none of that really matters because they’ve always been connected regardless of time and space. “We’re twins. They didn’t create us that way but we are twins,” says Weiner. “I’ll wake up in morning and put on a blue sweater. I have not talked to Marty, but when I see him he will have a blue sweater on. This happens two to three times a Continues on page 14
LOOKING TO SAVE FACE(S)
A portrait beloved by former Mayor Daley searches for a home BY BILL MCLEAN
T
he lithograph of four expressions of former Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley rests in a home in Wilmette. For now. How it got there — why it was produced, actually — is rooted in an ornery aide of the longtime Democratic mayor, a crestfallen, scrambling artist and a man of the cloth who votes … Republican. The Rev. Richard Dalton, an Anglican priest from Rochester, Mich., and his wife, Theresa, have four daughters. One of them, Elisabeth, lives in the North Shore home with the reproduction of the oil painting, created by Diana NevilleKnowles in 1975 and presented to an awestruck, teary-eyed Daley in a ceremony held at City Hall. Elisabeth and her father, a former Wilmette resident, believe it belongs elsewhere. “My dad [the late Robert G. Dalton] bought it in the mid1970s, but I’m not exactly sure why,” Fr. Dalton, 64, says. “He never hung it on a wall. He collected portraits of U.S. Presidents, all of them painted by Diana, and he hung those. I have 10 of them; they’re in my home
The Rev. Richard Dalton — a Republican — with the lithograph of the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley, a staunch Democrat, which rests at Dalton’s daughter’s home in Wilmette. PHOTOGRAPHY BY J0EL LERNER
in Michigan. Dad loved Diana’s work. “I like the image of Daley at the bottom, the one where he is kind of smirking, with a twinkle in his eye … his Irish eye. You look at him, you think of Chicago, don’t you? You don’t think of Michigan, and you don’t think of Wilmette.
“It needs to find a home, a proper home, in Chicago.” The portrait’s artist is living in Bigfork, Mont., tickled somebody is devoting time to relocate a lithograph of one of her 20,000-plus pieces of artwork. Her subjects also include Frank and Nancy Sinatra, Johnny Carson, Jackie Robinson and
Jack Nicklaus. Her portrait of former first lady Pat Nixon hangs in the Smithsonian. The Variety Club had commissioned Neville-Knowles to create the Daley oil painting. She needed 18 months to complete it, sometimes working up to Continues on page 12
Burglary prompts call for new police equipment
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n the early hours of May 13, Lake Forest Police responded to a report of a burglary in progress in the 1800 block of Farm Road. Several offenders were found breaking into cars. Two suspects were apprehended immediately by officers, and two others fled on foot.
The third and fourth suspects were located later and taken into custody. The Lake Forest Police Department has requested assistance from the Lake Forest Police Foundation to fund the purchase of additional equipment that would have been beneficial
in apprehending all subjects faster. These items include four 3,600 lumen portable light systems that are approximately $600 each, and two pieces of night-vision equipment that cost approximately $5,000 each. The 3,600 lumen lights are able to cast a useful beam nearly half a mile, and the night
vision is optical equipment that would allow officers to see in the dark and provide a tactical advantage. To donate, visit www.lakeforestpolicefoundation.org or contact Kasey Dunn Morgan with the Lake Forest Police Department at 847-810-3843 or morgank@cityoflakeforest.com.
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