Lawrence B. Christmas

1935 - 2022

BORN

1935

DIED

2022

About

Haverford College University of North Carolina

Lawrence Christmas Obituary

Lawrence Barroll Christmas, former Chicago city planner and president of the Village of Oak Park, died on 23 January 2022. He was 86.

Christmas was born on 30 December 1935 in Philadelphia. He was raised mostly in Washington, D.C. where he attended Sidwell Friends school. He graduated from Haverford College in 1958 and earned a master's degree at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill in 1962.

Christmas began his career in city planning in Chicago in 1963. He advanced to top positions in his field, becoming executive director of the Metropolitan Housing and Planning Council starting in 1973 and executive director of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) starting in 1980. NIPC at that time was known for excellence in research and forecasting populations, jobs, and economic growth with results useful to local governments. NIPC has since been merged with the Chicago Area Transportation Study and today is called the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP).

When Christmas retired from city planning in 1992, he was asked by the Village Manager Association of Oak Park to run for president of the Village of Oak Park. He won the election and served as village president from 1993 to 1997.

Among his retirement activities Christmas served as a docent for the Ernest Hemingway Foundation in Oak Park. He was still conducting tours of the Hemingway House until a few weeks ago. Other long-time hobbies included tennis, golf, and growing indigenous prairie plants at his farm in Michigan.

He is survived by his loving wife Sylvia plus children and grandchildren. They are planning a celebration of Larry's life to be held in the spring, details to be announced later.

The Village of Oak Park issued a proclamation to make 31 January 2022 a day of remembrance for Christmas.

In lieu of flowers, donations to the Ernest Hemingway Foundation of Oak Park are welcome. The website has a button for gifts in memory of Christmas: www.hemingwaybirthplace.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by Chicago Tribune on Feb. 10, 2022.

Memories and Condolences
for Lawrence Christmas

2 Entries

Robert B.Teska

February 14, 2022

I remember Larry as a professional colleague and friend whose example reflected high standards, sound values and effective leadership. His was a life well lived. His family can be proud of all he was.

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Margery L. Al-Chalabi

February 10, 2022

Larry Christmas was a dear friend to me and my late husband, Suhail al Chalabi, for over fifty years. But, he was also the "good planner", the person, either contributing to or in charge of, comprehensive planning for the greater Chicago region for that same period. That was no small task - after all, the Chicago Region was world-famous for its Plan of Chicago; but, Larry helped guide its programmatic successor, the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) for nearly thirty years, with much of that time as Executive Director (1980-92).

At its beginning, it was difficult to represent - in plans - the aspirations for such a large and diverse population. NIPC´s call for a Public Voice was timely and progressive; but it sparked an outcry of "socialism" and "regional government" similar to the current fierce conflict across the United States. This argument subsided with the selection of the "Finger Plan" as the prototype for the region; the Plan recognized major regional transportation corridors as its physical framework.

Accomplishments were many, in spite of NIPC's major funding being described as "opportunistic" - dependent on whatever Federal funding was available. That funding helped to decide the planning and program priorities. But, with Larry´s leadership, NIPC "engaged the entire region in the planning process, a process it called "Common Ground". And, it developed some very impressive regional plan components, including: its Land Use Framework, and Plans for Water Resources, Solid Waste, and Regional Open Space, among others."

Collaborating with experts from the University of Chicago, NIPC Research Staff conducted the revamping of its Research into a more-systematic and fine-grained forecasting procedure. NIPC´s refined forecasting became a process with results that local governments were eager to use. And, the research process, became a reputable means of forecasting the growth of jobs, population, and economic impacts, at the regional, municipal and project area levels. Eventually, after many years of NIPC and CATS (The Chicago Area Transportation Study), both vying for the role of Metropolitan Planning Organization, the two agencies were merged into the new agency, CMAP, (Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning). But, many of the plans and projects overseen by Larry, at NIPC, can still be seen in the region´s landscape. He will be missed, as a kind, thoughtful, and generous friend - to me and to the region. My heartfelt condolences to his family.

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