Stuart Opdycke is a veteran of the United States Air Force. He has been married for 42 years with three sons. He drives a 1963 red Ford Falcon convertible and writes with a fountain pen. He is also running for mayor of Evanston.
Opdycke attended Washington Elementary School, 914 Ashland St., and Nichols Middle School, 800 Greenleaf St., before graduating from the Evanston Township High School Class of 1960. During his time at ETHS, 1600 Dodge Ave., Opdycke began to show his potential electoral future by serving as president of his homeroom, said long-time friend Bob Blanchard.
In addition to his classroom leadership, Opdycke found high school athletic success, playing for a state champion tennis team. He then received the first tennis scholarship to Miami University in Ohio.
To this day, the 65-year-old plays platform tennis – a variation of the sport played on a smaller court surrounded by chicken wire.
“I’m actually the 55-and-over National Champion,” the candidate said.
After college, Opdycke saw the reality facing the country: the Vietnam War. Seeing he had a low draft number, he decided to take control of his own fate.
“I was going to be drafted,” Opdycke said. “So I thought as long as I’m going to have to go in, I may as well do something that is going to be challenging and be something that I enjoy.”
He joined the Air Force, where he would eventually end up piloting bombers and helicopters.
According to Blanchard, he was also involved in a very unique mission for the Air Force.
“He piloted the bombers that had the nuclear payload that were headed toward Russia,” Blanchard said. “If the president so commanded, he would have been the guy that dropped the bomb on Russia.”
Opdycke’s military years brought another important moment – he met his wife, Sarah.
“We had a blind date through friends of our parents,” Sarah Opdycke said. “Obviously there was something there.”
After leaving the Air Force, Opdycke and his family moved back to Evanston, and he attended Chicago’s John Marshall Law School. Today, he practices law professionally, mainly in the field of civil litigation.
“It’s not terribly sexy,” Opdycke said. “But I think that could be said about the practice of law in general.”
In 1986, Opdycke won the first of his two terms on the ETHS school board, an experience he said he greatly valued.
Opdycke has served on the Evanston Plan Commission since 2005, and is now the chairman.
Being mayor would take Opdycke’s public service to a new level. But it’s a logical move, his wife said.
“Consistently throughout my life with Stu, he has challenged himself over and over again both professionally and personally,” she said. “This seemed to be the next natural challenge.”
Opdycke said he wanted to do something different.
“This is my hometown, I’ve lived here all of my life,” he said. “I’ve been practicing law long enough – maybe I want to do something else, and this is what I decided to do.”
In a relatively crowded election, Opdycke said he sees himself as a “dark horse.”
He pointed to one opponent in particular – Ald. Elizabeth Tisdahl (7th).
“She’s in very tight with the Democratic organization, and that’s important,” he said. “I don’t have that kind of organization.”
Despite a seemingly uphill battle, Opdycke said he has continued to campaign hard. He has spent many hours knocking on doors and talking to residents, and is also pushing to get his posters up throughout the city.
Sarah Opdycke said that the campaign has not changed her husband. She said that he has some views that may hurt him with voters, but he has not backed down or changed his mind.
“He’s a character,” she said. “But he has character.”
