Leslie V. Tischauser

It is a with profound sadness that my brother and I share the passing of our beloved father, Leslie Tischauser, 81, of Oak Park, Illinois. He died on December 22, 2024, at his home next to our mother. He was a loving husband, father and brother.

A memorial visitation will be held Sunday, December 29, 2024, from 2:00pm to 6:00pm at Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home at 7319 Madison St., Forest Park, Illinois.

Funeral service will be held at 11:00am Monday, December 30, 2024, at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Oak Park, Illinois celebrated with Pastor David Jacob Heim of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Interment will follow in Concordia Cemetery at 7900 Madison St. in Forest Park, Illinois under the direction of Zimmerman-Harnett Funeral Home.

Leslie was born in Chicago, Illinois on December 29, 1942, at the Lutheran Deaconess Hospital. He attended primary school at Jehovah Lutheran, before attending Kelvyn Park High School, where he graduated in 1960. He then volunteered for the U.S. Army and served as a medical clerk at a hospital in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Afterward he volunteered for the VISTA Program (the precursor to Americorps) and helped teach adults in Southeastern Tennessee about the U.S. Constitution and American history. Leslie met our mother—the love of his life—who was a VISTA volunteer helping adults learn how to read and write. Leslie spent 56 years married to our mom, first living in the Humboldt Park neighborhood of Chicago before buying a home in Oak Park, in 1978, and having my brother and I.

Leslie earned a PhD in American History from the University of Illinois-Chicago in 1980 and spent more than 35 years teaching history and government courses at Prairie State College in Chicago Heights, Illinois. During his career, he authored numerous academic articles and seven books about American history focusing primarily on American race relations, slavery and the Jim Crow South. His first book based on his dissertation, dug into German American identity in Chicago during the interwar years (1920-1940). In between raising a family and writing academic books, Leslie volunteered for nearly 10 years at the Public Action to Deliver Shelter (PADS) in Oak Park.

To say that our dad loved baseball, and the Chicago Cubs does not do his passion justice. He deeply adored his team and reminded us repeatedly that it could always be worse (see the 1969 Cubs). He first went to Wrigley Field when he was seven with his grandmother and brother. Leslie’s last time at Wrigley Field was September 24, 2023, when he watched the Cubs beat the Colorado Rockies with his son and friend Fred Schied. Over the years, Leslie attended 100s of Cubs games, many times alongside Fred. Fred and our dad would talk for hours over the phone about baseball, the Cubs and often complain about coaching decisions, bad umpiring and that one pitch that got away from the Cubs, until 2016, when the Chicago Cubs won the world series.

“There is always next year,” was not just a motto but his way to express eternal joy and optimism for life. He pushed my brother and I to try our best and if we failed it was ok, “just try again,” he’d say.

Our dad taught us to never give up hope that a better world is possible. He was an activist who was arrested numerous times for using his first amendment right to protest wars, first in Vietnam, then in Iraq. When we asked him how many times he was arrested for using his voice to protest needless wars, he responded, “this was Chicago, police arrested you just for looking at them.”

Survivors include his wife, Connie of Oak Park, Illinois; sons, Jeffrey and Michael; sisters Linda Crawford of Chicago; Lois Gerambia of Chicago; Laura Tischauser of Chicago; niece, Kim Crawford of Chicago; nephew, Tim Crawford and wife Martha of Chicago; as well as over 20 nieces, nephews, and cousins.

He was preceded in death by his parents Vincent and Ruth Tischauser (née Sponholtz) of Chicago; brother, Leroy Tischauser of Lake Zurich, Illinois; brother-in-laws, Joe Crawford of Chicago, and Paul Gerambia of Chicago; and sister-in-law Jackie Tischauser of Lake Zurich, Illinois, and all of his aunts and uncles.

The family wishes to thank Leslie’s loving caretaker Magdalena, as well as the paramedics in the Oak Park Fire Department for helping my father survive his cardiac arrest in 2009.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to one of his favorite charities in his honor.

UNICEF: https://www.unicefusa.org/

The Greater Chicago Food Depository: https://www.chicagosfoodbank.org/

Feeding America: https://give.feedingamerica.org/

International Rescue Committee: https://help.rescue.org/

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