Our colleague Mario Raymond Reda died of cancer Tuesday night. As a personal friend, family friend and as a professional colleague I was, I think, in a unique position to appreciate his many roles.
I used the word appreciate but in all candor I must add that, while I certainly didn’t have a love-hate relationship with Mario, it was maybe an appreciate-frustrate relationship. His many roles included:
· The professor
· The politician
· The soccer coach
· The newspaper columnist and radio disk jockey (he wrote a column for the Oak Park/River Forest newspaper and hosted a jazz program for a short time)
· The computer geek (or at least wannabe, those damn computers just wouldn’t respond to his cajoling like people did)
· And foremost, the Catholic and the father.
He was a character right out of a Suds Turkel book. Stud’s famous book Division Street would be the one. I first meet Mario in 1970, just after that book was published. I read the book a few years later when both Mario and I were living a few blocks from each other in Oak Park just a block off of Division Street. Division St. parallels Mario’s life running east-west though Chicago, Oak Park and River Forest, but Mario’s adventures continued further west into DuPage county and area he never really loved like he did Chicago.
Mario the professor earned a B.A. in sociology and a Masters of Community Development both from Southern Illinois University. Hired in 1969, he was one of the first faculty members at the College. My relationship with Mario began in 1970 when I took my first plane ride from San Diego to be interviewed at the College. At that time Mario was Dean of Behavioral Sciences. Yes Mario was an administrator and he interviewed me and, along with Con Patsavas, he hired me.
Mario’s tenure as administrator didn’t last too long. His training in community development was in the confrontational tradition of the famed Chicagoan Saul Alinisky. A methodology that was effective in Chicago when Mario grew up but didn’t fit well with the WASPY 1970’s environment of DuPage County. Around that time he received some much needed “sensitivity training” from the then wildly popular National Training Labs in Bethel, Maine. This culminated with his involvement in the College’s Urban Outpost project. Marvin Segal was the driving force behind the program that introduced DuPage students to city life and challenges by living and learning for a few weeks in a brownstone near the University of Chicago campus.
Mario grew up above a bar on Grand Ave in the middle of one of Chicago’s ethnic melting pots. His father and mother immigrated from Italy. Reda’s Tavern had a small restaurant downstairs. It was the community watering hole and meeting spot something like Starbucks today only blue collar with cops and politicians hanging out there nightly. In the 1970s Mario and his two brothers bought Augustino’s Restaurant on Rush St., a classic Chicago restaurant and after hours meeting spot for entertainers of the day. In later years we shared some great times at his brother Frank’s restaurant Topio Gigios in Old Town. His brother Bob was the Chicago distributor for Jack Daniels – many students’ were amazed at all the Jack Daniels memorabilia in his office.
Mario’s political connections served him well during the Vietnam War when he joined the Army and served as an MP at O’Hara airport, going home each night.
Mario had politics in his blood. He loved the action of politics, the campaign as well as its potential to change society. He won the 1984 primary election and was the Democratic candidate for the U.S. 6th Congressional District running against Republican Henry Hyde. That was truly a grass-roots campaign, the last of its kind. I, who had trouble balancing my checkbook, served as Treasure. It is hard to believe with today’s multi-million dollar Congressional campaigns but our total budget was just over $100,000. Despite the meager funds Mario received one-third of the votes. None of Hyde’s opponents since then, even with million dollar budgets, has received a greater percentage of the vote.
Soccer was also in Mario’s blood. He served as the College Men’s and Women’s Soccer coach receiving many awards including Women's Soccer Coach of the Year four times.
Mario was fierce protector of academic freedom and the idea of academia. He was very proud of his role as professor. He edited three collections of readings for Allyn & Bacon and Simon and Schuster. Early in the College’s history he organized the local chapter of both the American Association of University Professors and the American Federation of Teachers. He couldn’t resist speaking at faculty meetings. He would start with slow measured tones and end up yelling. Although I sunk into my seat and secretly cringed whenever he stood up I knew we were in for a show and often there was a nugget of wisdom buried in the rhetoric.
Mario was always late. He once suggested that we car pool from Oak Park to the College. It must have been a moment of weakness but I said OK. That lasted three days. Mario could be very enduring but he could also be a pain-in-the-ass.
Mario the father is his greatest legacy. He had two broods, five children total ranging in age from 41 to 12. I have known and loved all of his kids. They are all smart, beautiful, successful, happy people.
Mario will be missed.
Allen Lanning
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