Frank M. Zuccarelli (October 29, 1951 – January 3, 2022) was an American politician who served as the longtime supervisor (executive) of Thornton Township in Cook County, Illinois.
[1][2] He attended Mendel Catholic High School until his family moved to South Holland, Illinois in 1967.
He served as vice president of the board of directors of the substance abuse rehabilitation program Foundation I.
[13] One of the members of the slate was Harold Murphy, a former Markham, Illinois alderman who had run an unsuccessful 1985 write-in campaign for mayor.
The members of the slate also all supported the potential adoption of affirmative action, though they differed on how the college might implement it.
[5] In 1993, Zuccarelli was elected the supervisor (executive) of Thornton Township in Cook County, Illinois.
[4] Zuccarelli was regarded to be the boss of a political machine in Thornton Township, and was criticized for his use of patronage.
[21] In his 2001 re-election for a third term, Zuccarelli faced a primary election challenge from Giglio, with whom his relationship had soured.
[19] Zuccarrelli, who was white, retained strong popularity with township voters even as it transformed into an overwhelmingly African American area.
The township began also offerings seniors free transportation for medical, grocery, and shopping trips.
[2][19] Zuccarelli is credited with the establishment of a STEM summer camp for elementary and middle school students which is hosted on the campus of South Suburban College.
[2][19] During Zuccarelli's tenure as supervisor, the township numerous times offered special tax rebates to residents.
For instance, he spent in excess of $106,000 on an advertising campaign to persuade Nobel Peace Prize voters to give the award to the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church after it was the site of a 2015 mass shooting.
He claimed the trip was to learn why South Carolina community had reacted differently to that shooting than Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland had to then-recent police-involved killings of African Americans.
[27][28] After a contentious process, the board chose Dolton, Illinois mayor Tiffany Henyard ten minutes before the 60-day deadline would have been reached.
[30] Zuccarelli endorsed the successful 2004 U.S. Senate campaign of Barack Obama ahead of the Democratic primary.
Zuccarelli and Shaw remained friendly, which led to some speculation that they had both run in order to split the vote away from Giglio so that one of them would beat him.
[7] In 2022, weeks after Zuccarelli died holding the committeperson seat, the Thornon Township selected Phoenix, Illinois Mayor Terry Wells (who had succeeded Zuccarelli on the South Suburban College board) as its choice to fill the position.
However, the Cook County Democratic Party decided against filling the position ahead of the regularly-scheduled June election.
[33] From 1996 until his death, Zuccarelli served on the Cook County Economic Development Advisory Board.
[1] On June 7, 2013, Illinois Governor Pat Quinn nominated Zuccarelli to replace John Bouman on the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) Board.
[34] William M. Daley, who was challenging Quinn for the Democratic nomination in the 2014 gubernatorial election, took issue with the proposed appointment of Zuccarelli.
Quinn defended the nomination, arguing that Zuccarelli's appointment would be valuable in providing the southern Chicago suburbs a "strong voice on transit".
[35][36] Zuccarelli served on the boards for Habitat for Humanity, the Thornton Township Youth Committee, and Foundation I.
[6] Even after his tenure on its board, Zuccarelli continued to be connected to the Thornton Youth Committee through associates.
The state government had tasked the Healthcare Consortium of Illinois as being the "lead agency" in determining which organizations would receive grant money allocated to Thornton Township, and Zuccarelli and Will Davis (who was also connected to the organization) served on its advisory committee to determine where to give grant money to.