A longtime Niles Park District commissioner and former deputy police chief died yesterday after collapsing minutes into the village's annual July 4th parade, according to parks officials.
Bill Terpinas, 80, was in a golf cart throwing candy to kids along the route when he collapsed shortly after the parade started at 9 a.m., said Jo Ann Raschillo, executive administrative coordinator with the park district. The district's finance director was driving the cart at the time, Raschillo said.
Terpinas, who served 16 years as a park commissioner, was taken to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he was pronounced dead, Raschillo said.
?He had just started the route,? she said. ?It was horrible?just horrible.?
Niles Police Chief Dean Strzelecki said he was behind Terpinas and the other park district commissioners in the parade line. Strzelecki said he heard the report over his radio of someone collapsing near the parade's starting point at Notre Dame College Prep. The person was described as being unresponsive, he said.
The parade continued, with some officials learning of Terpinas' passing while still on the parade route.
?We had to have the day go on,? Raschillo said. ?That's what he would have wanted.?
Neither Raschillo nor Strzelecki knew Terpinas? official cause of death.
Strzelecki served under Terpinas as a patrol officer, and described him as a ?great leader? and a ?very fair man.? He said Terpinas spent about 30 years as a deputy police chief before retiring in the early 1990s.
?He would always sit down with you and be a regular guy,? Strzelecki said. ?You knew he was a definite leader.?
Terpinas devoted much of his time and energy to park district matters and loved taking part in the annual parade, Raschillo said.
?He did everything for the park district,? she said. ?He was just all for kids. He was amazing?just a great man.?
Some saw his death at a beloved community event a fitting end for a man so devoted to service.
?With Bill's love of the park district and love of Niles, if there was a way Bill would have been able to write this, he was doing exactly what he loved to do,? Strzelecki said.
jbullington@tribune.com
Twitter: @TribLocal
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