Herbert T. Schumann, Jr. is an American politician who formerly served as a

Cook County commissioner The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

from 1990 to 2002.

Early life and education

Schumann was born in either 1951 or 1952. Shumann's father, Herb Schumann Sr., was one of the incorporators of

Palos Hills Palos Hills is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. It is a southwest suburb of Chicago. The city was established in 1958 and had reached a population of 18,530 in the 2020 census. It is the home of Moraine Valley Community College as ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and was, for 18 years until his 1990 death, a Palos Township supervisor. Schumann earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

from

Governors State University Governors State University (Governors State or GOVST) is a public university in University Park, Illinois. The campus is located south of Chicago, Illinois. GSU was founded in 1969. It is a public university offering degree programs at the und ...

. Schumann then earned a

Master of Business Administration A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

finance Finance is the study and discipline of money, currency and capital assets. It is related to, but not synonymous with economics, the study of production, distribution, and consumption of money, assets, goods and services (the discipline of fina ...

from

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

Career

From 1974 to 1977, Schumann served as a trustee of

Moraine Valley Community College Moraine Valley Community College is a public community college in Palos Hills, Illinois. Founded in 1967, it is surrounded by the Cook County Forest Preserves. The college also operates satellite centers in Blue Island and Tinley Park, Illin ...

. In 1982, Schumann ran unsuccessfully for the

Cook County Board of Commissioners The Cook County Board of Commissioners is a legislative body made up of 17 commissioners who are elected by district, and a president who is elected county-wide, all for four-year terms. Cook County, which includes the City of Chicago, is the Uni ...

. From 1986 through 2002, he served as Palos Township Republican

committeeman In the United States, a political party committee is an organization, officially affiliated with a political party and registered with the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), which raises and spends money for political campaigning. Political party ...

chairing the Palos Township Republican Organization, and having been elected in 1986, 1990, 1994, and 1998. In

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

, he was the Republican nominee for

Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County The Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County is the clerk of Circuit Court of Cook County, located in Cook County, Illinois. Office description On January 1, 1964, the circuit courts of Cook County were unified. Before this, there were more t ...

, losing the election to Democrat

Aurelia Pucinski Aurelia Marie Pucinski (born April 29, 1947) is a judge on the Illinois Appellate Court for the First District. She previously served as a trial judge and clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County. Her second term expires in 2030. Early life Bor ...

. He served for a time as the Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party.

Cook County Board of Commissioners

From 1990 through 2002, Shumann served as Cook County commissioner. He was appointed in 1990 as a member from suburban

Cook County Cook County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of Illinois and the second-most-populous county in the United States, after Los Angeles County, California. More than 40% of all residents of Illinois live within Cook County. As of 20 ...

, filling the vacancy left by the

death in office A death in office is the death of a person who was incumbent of an office-position until the time of death. Such deaths have been usually due to natural causes, but they are also caused by accidents, suicides, disease and assassinations. The death ...

of Harold Tyrrell. He was reelected in

1990 File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of Humankind, humanity on Earth, Astroph ...

. In

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, when the board switched to

single-member district A single-member district is an electoral district represented by a single officeholder. It contrasts with a multi-member district, which is represented by multiple officeholders. Single-member districts are also sometimes called single-winner vo ...

s, he was elected to represent the 17th district. He was subsequently reelected in

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

. In

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

he lost reelection in the Republican primary to

Elizabeth Ann Doody Gorman Elizabeth "Liz" Doody Gorman (born February 19, 1968) is a Republican member of the Cook County Board of Commissioners from 2002 until her resignation in 2015 to accept a job in the private sector. Gorman served as Chairman of the Cook County R ...

. During his campaign against Gorman, he had criticized her connections with

Edward Vrdolyak Edward Robert Vrdolyak (; born December 28, 1937), also known as "Fast Eddie", is a former American politician and lawyer. He was a longtime Chicago alderman and the head of the Cook County Democratic Party until 1987 when he ran unsuccessfully f ...

, while she criticized him for "voting with" board president

John Stroger John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

. In 1991, he and

president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners The President of the Cook County Board of Commissioners is the chief executive of county government in Cook County, Illinois. They are the head of the Cook County Board of Commissioners. Office description Officeholders Recent election res ...

Richard Phelan Richard Phelan, D.D. (January 1, 1828 – December 20, 1904) was an Irish-born prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, in the United States from 1889 to 1904. Bio ...

proposed a plan to levy a tax on non-hazardous

solid waste Municipal solid waste (MSW), commonly known as trash or garbage in the United States and rubbish in Britain, is a waste type consisting of everyday items that are discarded by the public. "Garbage" can also refer specifically to food waste, ...

accepted by landfill operators. In 1992, he and three other Republican suburban Cook County commissioners filed a lawsuit to stop board president Richard Phelan's executive order to allow elective

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

s at county hospitals. He and

Maria Pappas Maria Pappas is an American attorney, Greek American, and politician who has served as the Cook County Treasurer since 1998. Prior to that, she served two terms on the Cook County Board of Commissioners; first as one of ten members elected fro ...

were the only two members to vote against the districting map adopted when the Board of Commissioners switched to single-member districts in 1994. During part of his tenure, he chaired the board's environment committee. Ahead of the 1993 township elections in Palos Township, he partnered with some Democrats to form the Palos Township Independent Party. The party would, in the following years, see success in township elections. During part of his tenure on the Cook County Board of Commissioners, he served as a member of the Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission appointed by the County Board. This included serving as the commission's president.

Later career

After losing his seat, he began working many years as a finance director under president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners John Stroger and his successors

Bobbie L. Steele Bobbie L. Steele was sworn in as the 32nd president of the Cook County Board of Commissioners on August 1, 2006.Steve Patterson. "Steele vows changes". ''Chicago Sun-Times''. August 2, 2006. 10. She had been commissioner for the 2nd district of C ...

and

Todd Stroger Todd H. Stroger (born January 14, 1963) is the former president of the Cook County, Illinois Board and a former alderman for the 8th Ward in Chicago. Stroger is a member of the Democratic Party. In 2001, he was appointed to the Chicago City Counc ...

. Schumann worked as a property tax analyst employed by the

Cook County Board of Review The Cook County Board of Review is an independent office created by statute by the Illinois General Assembly and is governed by three commissioners who are elected by district for two- or four-year terms. Cook County, Illinois, Cook County, which in ...

. Schumann served on the Palos Lions Cal Sag Watershed Council. In 2014, Schumann ran unsuccessfully for a seat on the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board. In 2016, Schumann ran unsuccessfully for the seat on the Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board vacated when

Patrick Daley Thompson Patrick Daley Thompson (born July 8, 1969) is an American politician who most recently served as an alderman from Chicago's 11th ward and was previously a commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago. A member o ...

resigned to assume office as a Chicago alderman. The seat had been filled with an interim appointment by Governor

Bruce Rauner Bruce Vincent Rauner (; born February 18, 1956) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and politician who served as the 42nd governor of Illinois from 2015 to 2019. Prior to his election, he was the chairman of R8 Capital Partners and chai ...

of Republican David J. Walsh, however Walsh did not seek reelection and Schumann had won the Republican nomination unopposed. He received the endorsements of the

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

and

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

in the general election.

Personal life

Schumann and his wife Colleen have a son named Lucas and daughter named Mackenzi. When he first joined the Cook County Board of Commissioners in 1990, he resided in Palos Hills, Illinois. , he lived in Palos Heights, Illinois. Schumann's wife Colleen Schumann has served as a Palos Township supervisor since 2005.

Electoral history

Cook County Board of Commissioners

;1982 ;

;

Palos Township Republican Committeeman

Clerk of the Circuit Court of Cook County

;

Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago board

;

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

;

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schaumann, Herb Members of the Cook County Board of Commissioners Illinois Republicans Governors State University alumni DePaul University alumni People from Palos Heights, Illinois People from Palos Hills, Illinois 1950s births Living people