General Patrick E. Rea

A Tribute to General Patrick E. Rea March 26, 1940 – July 27, 2024

The nation is blessed that has the service of citizens whose honor and integrity, leadership and stewardship, generosity and civic engagement are given by them freely and without limit.

We lost such a citizen on July 27, 2024, with the passage into memory of retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Patrick E. Rea of Tinley Park, Illinois. General Rea is remembered as a cultured and elegant form of American gentleman, once not uncommon among the leaders of American society, yet now sadly rare.

Pat’s character was centered and grounded in the firmness of America’s heartland. His life is a chart of service to others; indeed, it was often said by those who knew him best that he gave far more easily than he received.

As a father, Pat gave family to a young boy with an uncertain future. Eli was a Cuban refugee sent to process at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin. An Army chaplain called Pat and said he had a 12-year-old boy who needed a home. Pat adopted Eli and raised him as his own.

Pat’s well-lived life was widely, but not casually, traveled. Born in Chicago, he came to Tinley Park at seven; there he would root himself in public service throughout his eighty-four years. Pat first ventured abroad to Bremen High School in Midlothian, and Central High School in Burlington. Then he was off to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. There, he was an Army ROTC cadet, joined the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and in 1963 earned a bachelor’s degree in economics and business; the beginnings of his civic trajectory were forming.

That same year, freshly commissioned 2nd Lt. Patrick Rea, U.S. Army Intelligence, ventured further still, serving in Vietnam during the war and earning there a Bronze Star Medal to add to his Army Aviation Badge. He would give his country three decades of military service in the active Army and the Army Reserve, commanding at every level from platoon through brigade. Ultimately, his brigadier general’s star came, and he served as assistant division commander and acting commander of the 85th Division, U.S. Army Reserve, his excellence recognized with the prestigious Legion of Merit.

A lifelong student of greatness, he added a masters degree in economics from his alma mater, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and a master of science degree in military police and international relations from the Army War College in Pennsylvania.

In 2004, Pat received the Secretary of Defense Medal for Outstanding Service Award, the second-highest award by the secretary for non-career federal officials. The year before, he had been named by President George W. Bush the Midwest regional administrator for the U.S. Small Business Administration, serving until 2009. His regional oversight included Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin.

Throughout a life star-studded with success and distinction, Pat was and will always be known as “General.” The persona of a soldier-leader captured his essence. He helped find and guide worthy applicants for the military academies and was always ready to help military families experiencing hardship. His work established Tinley Park’s Veterans Commission in 1971.

Most of this soldier’s military service coincided with the centrality of life of his beloved Tinley Park. Pat Rea was Tinley Park: he was made a Tinley Park commissioner in 1968, newly back from Vietnam. In 1971 came an appointment as a village trustee, one of the youngest members of the board in the village’s century-old history. Reelected for ten consecutive terms, Pat was then appointed village clerk in 2009, where he served until 2017.

“Pat loved Tinley Park to his very core,” said Mayor Michael Glotz, in words echoed times without number by the many whom he served as the village’s most revered citizen. “The welfare of our Village and the people in it were never far from his thoughts, and it showed in how passionately he served the people of Tinley Park throughout his nearly 50-year career. His guidance and leadership will be sorely missed.”

During this time, Pat had entered the world of finance. In 1969, he joined the First National Bank of Chicago, later Bank One, and rose to vice president and banker at Bank One Capital Markets, where he gained expertise in the financing of public infrastructure. He became a registered municipal and general securities representative.

As a Tinley Park public servant, Pat applied that knowledge, coupled with his military experience and his dedication to the people of his village, ensuring that Tinley Park would enjoy fiscal strength as it experienced explosive growth. His impact was felt beyond Tinley Park, however, as he served as executive director of the Illinois Development Finance Authority.

Said Mayor Glotz, “I learned more from Clerk Rea than anyone I’ve been involved with politically or not politically. From his financing expertise to the military, what he brought to the table, he’s not the norm.”

Pat was instrumental in establishing the village’s Consumer Protection Ordinance, the Personal Police Squad Car Program, the Main Street Commission, the tax ordinance, and the sunset ordinance.

Called “a renaissance man,” by more than a few, General Rea collected and then employed for the good of others more than just experiences. His web of friends included a royal family in Germany with whom he established a sister cities relationship between Tinley Park and their castle town of Budingen. Other sister cities include Mallow, Ireland; and Nowy Sacz, Poland. He continued to be involved in the Sister Cities Commission, serving as chair at the time of his death.

These relationships, the harvest of Pat’s magnanimous engagement, have enriched the civic life of his village.

Pat also received honorary the title “Doctor Honoris causa” from the Academy for Science, Art and Culture in Sofia, Bulgaria, on October 14, 2016.

Pat’s influence extended yet further, with his leadership of the fraternal and chivalric International Order of the Temple of Jerusalem Knights Templar. The order honors the Knights Templar of the 12th Century, who selflessly protected Christians making the pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Templars today support their communities and countries, oppose oppression and help the poor, and work to maintain a Christian presence in the Holy Land. In 2021, Pat was elected to be Grand Prior of the Priory of the United States (2002-2004).  Pat then moved to the International Order (OSMTH), becoming Grand Commander from 2004–2010 and subsequently Grand Master of the International Knights Templar (2010–2018).

Among his many recruits into the order, Dr. Dame Evangeline Gouletas, who owned Cite restaurant in Chicago, recalled that under his guidance, she and the Priory of St. Norbert led the international fundraising effort to rebuild Christ the King Orthodox Cathedral in Moscow, after the magnificent church fell into disrepair during the communism era. In her words, “We have lost a great man from earth but gained an Angel in Heaven, he was a great leader and a renaissance man.”

Pat was indeed an angel to many in need. A friend recalled that one Christmas, Pat asked him to come along shopping. They filled two carts with toys. The friend, then an Air Force pilot, asked Pat who the gifts were for. “I don’t know, whoever shows up on Christmas Day,” Pat replied. They were up after midnight wrapping the boxes. He returned on Christmas morning for “duty” handing out the gifts. “A stream of families filed in all morning and left with presents and giddy children,” Santa Pat’s helper recalled. “I have no idea how he arranged this or how families were invited or otherwise knew to drop in, but this event was just another in a long list of his seemingly endless acts of charity.”

Every advancement, every accomplishment of a friend, the offspring of a friend, or one of his many protégées, no matter how humble or exalted, was for Pat the opportunity to celebrate the triumph with a pageantry, gusto, and guest list suited to a 19th century coronation. To be a friend of Pat Rea was inevitably to be the focus of boundless celebration. Indeed, to know Pat Rea was to be his friend.

Pat’s ability – as he himself lovingly admitted – to host such events and live a life of a uniquely dense social tempo, was rooted in the devoted support of his sister, Joan Salbego at every moment throughout his life.

On August 8, 2024, twelve days after Pat Rea’s passing, perhaps his most dear and special friend also died. Elisabeth, Princess of Ysenburg and Budingen, Princess of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, was born in the final year of World War II; her father was a general in the war.

The friendship between the American general and the German princess deepened over the years as they saw their children grow into fine adults, as they “gave their shoulders” for others to mount in life’s upward climb, as they ennobled each other’s passage with a shared unselfish dignity emblematic of the best their nations had to offer.

These are lives that show us the grandeur of lives well lived. We are infinitely better for having such angels among us.

They are with us still.

PUBLIC VISITATION: Saturday, September 21st, 8:30am - 10:30am, processing to First Baptist Church of Tinley Park for an 11:00am funeral service, Pastor Harold Parsley officiating.  Interment Monday, September 23rd, 1:00 pm at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, with full Military Honors afforded.  Family and friend kindly asked to meet directly at the cemetery.  In lieu of flowers, donations to the Tinley Park Historical Society or the General Raymond G. Davis Templar Foundation Inc. appreciated.

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