Joseph Stanek, known as the “parks mayor” for the development of McHenry parks during his tenure, has died. He was 93.

While mayor from 1973 to 1985, Stanek was credited with overseeing McHenry’s acquisition of Petersen and Knox parks, with construction of the Merkel Aquatic Center and for hiring the city’s first parks and recreation director.

His impact on McHenry “will be felt for generations,” Mayor Wayne Jett said while remembering Stanek at the McHenry City Council meeting this week. “He gave us parks programs and progress that helped to shape the McHenry that we know today.”

Before Stanek, McHenry had Veteran’s Park – then known as Pearl Street Park – and not much else in the way of recreational open space, former McHenry Mayor Sue Low Meyer said.

“Other than the VFW [Post 4600], we didn’t have a lot of recreation for kids or adults,” Meyer said, but Stanek changed that. “He was very focused on that, making our first parks and recreation department.”

Stanek hired Pete Merkel, the first parks and recreation director, for whom the Merkel Aquatic Center is named. That pool opened in 1981 and replaced the beach at Weber’s Park where McHenry children historically went swimming.

Stanek “never got the proper credit” for his impact on McHenry, Merkel said. “He had a vision and a foresight that a lot of people didn’t have back then, and he did a great job with it.”

As developers came to McHenry in the 1970s, it was Stanek who got a developer donation ordinance passed, allowing city city to get land or cash for parks and schools, or sometimes both, Merkel said.

When Stanek was mayor, McHenry did not have a city administrator, Meyer added.

“His mayor office was ran out of his barber shop” because Stanek was always there, Meyer said. “I am sure a lot of city business was conducted there.”

Stanek was a veteran of the Korean War, serving in the Army’s 32nd Infantry Regiment and 7th Infantry Division, later becoming a sergeant, according to his obituary.

He spoke to the Northwest Herald in December 2022 about his memories of the attack on Pearl Harbor and hearing about it on the radio as a child.

Stanek was also a mentor to Meyer, she said, something she told his children and grandchildren at his wake held Sunday. “I would see him often and he would ask ‘How is everything going?’”

He would tell her “this is what happened before and what you ought to know. He had the historic knowledge,” Meyer said.

Stanek died Nov. 22 and his funeral was held Monday at the St. Patrick Catholic Church of McHenry. Stanek is survived by his children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, according to his obituary.