Lois Weisberg

Distinguished Alumnae Award Recipient, 2003

First to serve as Chicago’s Commissioner, she was appointed by Mayor Harold Washington to head the city’s Office of Event Planning in 1983. She created the Chicago Blues Festival and in the summer of 1999 she launched the Cows on Parade exhibit – the In first in the US,  The city reaped millions of dollars in tourist trade from the exhibit and raised #3.5 million for charity when the cows were sold.  She converted an abandoned public library building into the Chicago Cultural Center and founded Friends of the Park.  In 2000 she placed 300 ping-pong tables all around town and she was the brains behind Chicago’s unique Millennium celebration.  Among her many city and arts awards:  the League of Women Voters Civic Contribution Award, Governing Magazine’s Public Official of the Year Award, the Harold Washington History Maker Award, the Chicago Tribune “Chicagoan of the Year” Award, and the 2014 Inaugural Fifth Star Award from the City of Chicago.   Born in 1925, she died in 2016. 

https://www.governing.com/poy/lois-weisberg.html