Pilot Killed in Plane Crash ID'd as Atheist Activist Rob Sherman: UPDATE

The McHenry County Coroner's Office has identified the pilot killed in a crash near Marengo as well-known suburban atheist activist Robert L. Sherman, who has made headlines over the years for legally challenging the separation of church and state and who also ran for Congress this past year.

Sherman, 63, was supposed to attend a holiday party for the Experimental Aircraft Association Chapter 153 at the Schaumburg Regional Airport on Friday but never showed up, Chapter President Bob Brandt told the Daily Herald. His wife, Celeste, drove to and attended the party.

The next morning, the wreckage from Sherman's plane was reported to authorities by a passerby. The plane went down at 6105 Meyer Road in Marengo.

An autopsy performed Monday revealed Sherman died of of "multiple crush injuries due to an airplane crash," McHenry County Coroner Anne Majewski said in a news release late Monday afternoon.

Sherman, 63, of Poplar Grove, ran unsuccessfully this past year as a Green Party candidate for the 5th Congressional District. He was a national spokesman for American Atheists for many years and a disaster volunteer for the American Red Cross, according to his recent candidate profile on the Daily Herald.

He also recently announced plans to run for a 12th District seat, which is located in far southwest Illinois, in the 2018 election.

Sherman lived in Buffalo Grove for 32 years before recently moving to a home with an airplane hangar in Poplar Grove with his wife, Celeste, the Daily Herald reports. He was in the process of setting up an airplane construction business.

Sherman, who once jokingly referred to himself as the most prominent atheist in Illinois, has publicly defended the separation of church and state over the years, the Chicago Tribune reports.

In the 1980s, he made headlines when he questioned the logo used for the city of Zion — an emblem found on the town’s water tower, which was a cross, a dove and a crown and scepter. In 1991, Zion’s seal, which included a cross and the phrase "God reigns," was ruled unconstitutional by the U.S. appellate court, the Daily Herald reports. The city was forced to design a new seal.

Sherman was also a well-known radio host. He retired in 2007 from his job as the Morning Drive host of the Rob Sherman Show on AM 1530 WJJG Chicago.

Sherman, who joined the local EAA chapter in the past three years, was relatively new to aviation, longtime EAA Chapter 153 member Bob Meyers told Patch in an e-mail Monday morning. He joined the EAA board last year, Meyers said. And he was currently the chapter’s director of membership and public relations, the Daily Herald reports. He also volunteered to become a Young Eagles coordinator for the organization, Meyers said.

His passion for aviation was clear, Meyers said, and Sherman was thrilled about his recent move to his “hangar home” in Poplar Grove.

“The most interesting thing to me has been that with all of my interactions with him since he joined the chapter, I was completely unaware of his atheist activism. I was aware that he was running for Congress but he made no big deal of that within the chapter,” Meyers said. “All of our conversations revolved around aviation and he clearly had a passion for it.”

Authorities were still working Monday morning to try and determine what caused the crash, which is believed to have occurred Friday night, according to the Daily Herald. The NTSB did not expect to have a preliminary report available on the crash until later this week or early next week.

“The NTSB has not verified any of the information regarding the origin of the flight. Part of the investigation process will be to review the pilot’s medical history, log books and try to obtain a 72-hour history of the pilot prior to the accident,” board spokesman Keith Holloway told the Daily Herald on Sunday. “This will take some time to go through the information.”

The crash remains under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration and the NTSB.

Photo caption: Rob and his wife, Celeste, in his single-engine airplane. Photo credit: Rob Sherman for Congress website