J. Kroy Ostergaard, 59-year Wilmette Resident, Former Village Trustee and WWII Ski-Trooper, Dies at 90

J. Kroy Ostergaard, a resident of Wilmette for 59 years, died on Nov. 20, 2014.  A combat veteran of World War II, he was 90 years old.

Born in Portland, Oregon on July 23, 1924, to Soren and Julia (Stipe) Ostergaard, he lived in Asheville, NC, and then Winnetka, Illinois.  The day after he graduated from New Trier High School in 1943, Ostergaard enlisted in the U.S. Army.  Completing intensive training with the 10th Mountain Division at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, Pfc. Ostergaard served in combat with the 10th in Italy’s Apennine Mountains, 1944-45.  He was wounded in action near the Po River.  In 1946, he returned home to attend the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Navy Pier and later began a 45-year career with western Electric/AT&T/Lucent as a telephone systems engineer.

He married Virginia (Ginny) Donovan (Stoecker) Ostergaard in 1950, and with the help of his father, they soon literally began building a house at 18th St. and Elmwood Ave. in Wilmete.  After much swinging of hammers and sawing of boards, the couple moved in to their new home in 1952, and lived there for more than half a century.

Ostergaard served as a Wilmette village trustee 1969-73 with the distinction of winning two elections yet serving only one term.  He and other members of the Wilmette United Party won office in a disputed April 1969 election that was voided after a lawsuit challenging there were too few polling places and many residents were unable to vote.  A second municipal election was ordered for Nov. and Ostergaard and his fellow United candidates won again.  He was instrumental in the call for a new village hall to replace an antiquated structure built in the 1920s and his name is on the plaque in the current building’s lobby.

He was an active Boy Scout and leader for more than 75 years.  As a high schooler, he stepped up to the leadership role of Winnetka’s Troop 16 when the regular scoutmaster was drafted into military service.  Ostergaard later served as troop committee chairman and assistant scoutmaster of Wilmette Boy Scout Troop 3 at Trinity Methodist Church, using his summer vacations to take scout groups to Camp Ma-Ka-Ja-Wan near Pearson, Wisconsin, and the Philmont Scout Ranch outside of Cimmaron, New Mexico.  He was presented with the Silver Beaver Award from the Northeast Illinois Council of the Boy Scouts of America in recognition of his service and he continued as an active scouter at the troop, district and council level.

His wife predeceased him in 2004, and he is survived by their three children, Jack (Jane), Jill Jacobsen (Ken) and Jerry, six grandchildren, and his sister, Lois Boyd of Rockford IL.  A memorial service is being planned for the spring.  Donations in his memory should be made to the North Shore Senior Center, the Northeast Illinois Council of the Boy Scouts of America or Trinity Methodist Church in Wilmette.

contact: f.ostergaard@comcast.net