Eric U. Edstrom Jr.

Eric U. Edstrom, Jr., 84, passed away peacefully in the early hours of August 9, 2015. He was born January 22, 1931 in Berwyn, Illinois, son of Eric U. Edstrom, Sr. and Harriet Louise Bone. The fifth of six children, he grew up in Berwyn, and moved as a teenager to Wausau, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Wausau for two years before volunteering for the U.S. Navy where he served from 1951 to 1955. He met his future wife Helen M. Klotnia on Veterans Day 1951 in Chicago. They were married on July 23, 1955 and recently celebrated their 60th anniversary. Mr. Edstrom graduated from Northwestern University, where he completed bachelor's and master's degrees in history, and taught for nearly forty years in Maine Township High School District 207, where he also served as Chairman of the Social Science Department. Mr. Edstrom was an educational innovator, making extensive use of games in the classroom, and co-created the Des Plaines Clinical Government class that to this day continues to provide high school students with a direct experience of city government. He also taught for many years at Northwestern University at its School of Education. Mr. Edstrom was a resident of Hoffman Estates since 1961. He is survived by his wife Helen and by their six sons: Eric J., Thomas (Jennifer Reft), Carl (Carolyn Campbell), James, Alan (Andrea Costanzo), and Jeffrey (Eve). He is also survived by twelve grandchildren: Cole, Gray, Remy, Eric S., Eleanor, Phoebe, Amanda, Drew, Nicholas, Natalie, Henry, and Ilona, by his sisters Louise R. Kokesh and Carole Falk, brother-in-law Joseph (Audrey) Klotnia, and numerous nephews, nieces, grandnephews and grandnieces. He was preceded in death by his brother John and sisters Roberta and Marietta. Visitation will be held at 10:00 AM on Saturday, September 19, 2015 at St. Hubert Catholic Church, 729 Grand Canyon Street in Hoffman Estates, followed by Mass at 11:00 AM. Interment will be at St. Michael the Archangel Cemetery in Palatine. The family asks that memorial contributions be made in lieu of flowers to "Room to Read" (www.roomtoread.org).