Frank Spreyer was a conservationist who believed today’s generation is responsible for tomorrow’s future.
In his 70s, Mr. Spreyer was planting red-oak seedlings on his property when Robert Kosin, director of administration for the village of Barrington Hills, paid a visit. Kosin pointed out that the trees would not reach their full maturity for another 50 to 80 years and asked why he bothered with the effort.
“He said it was his intent to see that maturity,” Kosin said. “For a moment there, I had some youthful boldness and pointed out that wasn’t practical. And he revealed to me it wasn’t he, himself, who would enjoy it. But others on his behalf would.”
Mr. Spreyer, 93, a former executive vice president for Jewel Food Store, died Sunday, June 4, in his Barrington Hills home of complications from Alzheimer’s disease.
“His lesson for me, when an issue came up, was to look for whose interest would be served when,” Kosin said.
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Mr. Spreyer and his first wife, Wilma Westerman, lived in Barrington before they moved to Barrington Hills in 1956. They were married in 1937. She died in 1973.
In 1974, he married Alice Steuber, who died two years ago.
Mr. Spreyer considered the entire Barrington area to be under his protection. He was one of the founding members of the Barrington Area Development Council in the 1960s, said Don Klein, former executive director of the Barrington Area Council of Government.
“He was incredibly active in terms of the environment and conscious of bringing people into the entire job of protecting our woods and waters in the Barrington area,” Klein said. “Frank was a very quiet man in his own way but always willing to take a leadership role to go that last extent to protect the area here.”
Mr. Spreyer was born in San Francisco. He and his family moved several times while his father, a commercial artist, looked for work.
After a move to the Chicago area, the family settled in Cary in 1924.
“He would trap muskrats along the Fox River for the fur in order to get the family by during the Depression,” said his son Mark. “We are talking about a true rags to riches story.”
After his graduation from Crystal Lake High School, Mr. Spreyer worked his way through Lake Forest College. During one summer job driving spikes for the Chicago & North Western Railway, Mr. Spreyer noticed the Jewel headquarters in the distance. The next year, he wrote a paper on the company for one of his business classes.
After he graduated with a business degree in 1935, he applied for a job at Jewel with the paper in hand. He was hired to work on the loading dock.
During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy. After his discharge he returned to Jewel and moved up in the ranks, eventually becoming an executive vice president in operations.
“Whenever he would go to the docks, the men would yell out, `Hey, Mr. Spreyer,’ and he would stop and chat with them,” his son said. “But when he went into the offices, people would snap to attention. He had a tremendous presence and people respected him.”
Shortly after he retired from Jewel in 1972, he became more active in the conservation and environmental movement. He served on the board of the Stillman Nature Center, an 80-acre oasis of woods and wetlands in South Barrington, where his son is now director.
“The apple didn’t fall far from the tree. When other people were golfing or at the country club, we were out working the garden or mowing the lawn,” his son said.
Other survivors include another son, Frank; a daughter, Abigail Spreyer; a stepdaughter, Jane Ramsey; a stepson, David Steuber; four grandsons; and one great-granddaughter.
Visitation will be held from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday in Davenport Family Funeral Home, 149 W. Main St., Barrington.