Richard Buell Ogilvie (February 22, 1923 – May 10, 1988) was an American attorney and law enforcement officer who served as the 35th governor of Illinois from 1969 to 1973.
A wounded combat veteran of World War II, he became known as the mafia-fighting sheriff of Cook County, Illinois, in the 1960s before becoming governor.
[1] As sheriff, Ogilvie developed a reputation for fighting vice and his office led roughly 1,800 police raids during his tenure.
This included the Fun Lounge police raid, which resulted in 109 arrests and is a notable event in the LGBT history of Chicago.
He directed an expanded role for the Illinois Housing Development Authority, a key agency for combating urban decay.
He also established the Illinois Department of Local Government Affairs to assist or advise county and municipal officials in the discharging of their duties.
At Governor Ogilvie's request, the General Assembly authorized an experimental junior college in East St. Louis—the State Community College—which did not require a local tax.
In 1987, he was appointed by then-Secretary of Transportation Elizabeth Dole to chair a committee studying the proposed termination of Amtrak's federal subsidy.
In 1997, Chicago & North Western Station, the downtown terminus for Metra commuter trains to many of Chicago's northern and western suburbs, was renamed Ogilvie Transportation Center in his honor, two years after the C&NW's assets have been purchased and incorporated into Union Pacific.
[6] Ogilvie is referenced in the news broadcast that serves as a backdrop for Simon & Garfunkel's "7 O'Clock News/Silent Night," which reports that Ogilvie, in his position as Cook County Sheriff, asked Martin Luther King Jr. to call off an open-housing march in the Chicago suburb of Cicero.
In the first-season episode "Home Again" of the alternate history science fiction TV series For All Mankind, Ogilvie is referenced as being the governor of Illinois in 1974 and that his support for the Equal Rights Amendment plays a role in the state's ratification of it.