Allan C. Carr (c.1929–November 12, 2021) was an American politician who served as

Cook County commissioner The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Un ...

from 1988 to 2002, serving from suburban

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

at-large At large (''before a noun'': at-large) is a description for members of a governing body who are elected or appointed to represent a whole membership or population (notably a city, county, state, province, nation, club or association), rather than ...

from 1988–1994 and from the 16th district from 1994–2002. Before this, he served as

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the est ...

city

clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...

, as well as its

committeeman In the United States, a political party committee is an organization, officially affiliated with a political party and registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), which raises and spends money for political campaigning. Political party ...

Business career

Carr became a wealthy restaurant operator. He started the Steak-N-Egger chain.

Political career

Carr began to engage in Cicero's politics in 1976. In 1976, he backed Christy Berkos for town president (mayor). She won as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in the New Hope, Pennsylvania, area of the United States during the early 1930s * Independe ...

, defeating the candidate of John Kimbark's Republican organization. Carr became a Cicero town trustee. Carr later served as Cicero town

. He was also the head of the regular Republican organization of Cicero as its

. He had been the successor of John Kimbark in these positions, and was Kimbark's chosen successor, named two days before Kimbark's death, which surprised many as they had long been strong enemies. Carr also served as Cicero's

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

director during this time. In 1988, Carr was appointed to the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

from suburban

. The six Republican commissioners from the suburbs appointed Carr to succeed retiring Commissioner Joseph Woods of Oak Park. He was reelected in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. He was elected to the 16th district in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nelson Ma ...

when the board switched to single-member constituencies, and was reelected in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains independence from Indonesia and ...

he was defeated for reelection in the Republican primary by

Tony Peraica Anthony J. "Tony" Peraica (born April 14, 1957) is an American politician from Chicago, Illinois. He was the Cook County Commissioner for the 16th district, and was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Cook County treasurer in 1998, for pre ...

. Peraica had been supported by

Betty Loren-Maltese Betty Loren-Maltese is a convicted felon and the former town president of Cicero, Illinois. She is a member of the Republican Party and received national attention for her role in an insurance scam which robbed the town of $12 million. Biography ...

and

Edward Vrdolyak Edward Robert Vrdolyak (; born December 28, 1937), also known as "Fast Eddie", is a former American politician and lawyer. He was a longtime Chicago alderman and the head of the Cook County Democratic Party until 1987 when he ran unsuccessfully ...

, each of whom held grudges against Carr. Peraica had previously run against Carr unsuccessfully in 1994 as a Democrat. In 1994, Betty Loren-Maltese made Carr, who up until then had been considered an ally of her's and to whom she arguably owed her original election as Cicero town president, step down from his position as committeeman so that she could take his place and consolidate her control over the Town of Cicero Republican Organization. In

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

, Carr and his family supported Democrat Jeff Tobolski's successful campaign to unseat Peraica in Carr's former seat on the Cook County Board of Commissioners.

Personal life

Carr's son Terrence M. "Terry" Carr, Sr. served as the longtime mayor of

Willow Springs, Illinois Willow Springs is a village in Cook County, Illinois, with a small portion in DuPage County. The village was founded in 1892, and was named for the springs along the Des Plaines River. Per the 2020 census, the population was 5,857. Geography Wil ...

, he was a trustee of Willow Springs and a member of the board of

Pace Pace or paces may refer to: Business *Pace (transit), a bus operator in the suburbs of Chicago, US *Pace Airlines, an American charter airline *Pace Foods, a maker of a popular brand of salsa sold in North America, owned by Campbell Soup Company ...

. In April 2020, Terry's own son, Terrance M. "Terry" Carr, Jr., was sworn-in as acting mayor of

McCook, Illinois McCook is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States, and is an industrial suburb of Chicago. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 249, which is the lowest population of all municipalities in the county. History McCook was na ...

Electoral history

Cook County Board of Commissioners

;

Cicero Township committeeman

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, Allan C. 2021 deaths Year of birth uncertain Place of birth missing Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Illinois Republicans 1920s births