Pete Perez
The Aurora Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board created the Pete Perez Award as a tribute to a man who impressed all around him..
Remembering Peter J. Perez
Beacon News - February 10, 1999
1928 – 1999
The city’s men in blue speak of him with awe. They talk about the children he steered away from trouble. They talk about how much he loved his wife and kids. They talk about his dedication to the city and to the police force. Peter J. Perez, a 21 – year veteran of the Aurora Police Department and former undersheriff of the Kane County Sheriff’s Department, died of cancer. He was 74. Former Aurora Police Chief Bob Brant said Perez was the man every rookie officer looked up to, a man who easily gained the admiration of each person he met.
“He was the most respected policeman in the police department, “ Brant said.
Born in Aurora of immigrant parents from Zacatecas, Mexico and raised in Aurora, Perez attended Marmion Military Academy. He went to the University of Illinois, where he was a standout on the football team. The Chicago Bears took notice and, in 1945, he signed on to play with the Monsters of the Midway. He was a guard and played both offense and defense. In the coming years, he played farm club football in Akron, Ohio, and Bethlehem, PA. In 1985, he was recognized by the magazine Nuestro as one of the first Latinos to be a success in professional football. Perez – the former Chicago Bear, the police officer, who always took the time to talk – gained almost mythical status in his East side neighborhood.
Strong in Spirit – small boys would cluster in his garage to watch Perez lift weights. Sometimes he would offer them tips on football or on the finer techniques of parking lot baseball.
“He was the Mr. Atlas of our little local world…which was about five square blocks,” said former Aurora Police Chief Larry Langston, who as a child lived near Perez.
It was these times – when Perez would play with the impressionable, adoring kids from the neighborhood – that stick with Langston.
“There are certain memories you capture when you’re a kid and you remember throughout your life,” Langston said.
Former Mayor David Stover also knew Perez from childhood...
“Physically, he was a strong man, and in his spirit and in his heart he was very strong, as well,” Stover said. “When you think of Pete Perez, you think of compassion.”
Perez brought this dedication to children with him to the police force. In 1967 he was selected to head the department’s juvenile division.
“He probably turned around and saved many, many young people’s lives,” Brent said.
To many of these kids, he was simply known as “Uncle Pete.” Kane County Youth Home Superintendent Marlan Tevis in 1967 wrote this about Perez’s work with juveniles:
“In this day and age in which there seems to be so much disregard for authority and especially for police officers, it certainly is unusual when youngsters who come to the youth home and are confined here will indicate that Pete Perez is one of the best friends they have. He is an officer who is much respected by these kids and I feel he deserves a great deal of credit for his work.”
‘Like Brothers’ – In 1956, Hector Jordan became the first Hispanic officer at the Aurora Police Department. Perez joined the force two years later. In a 1997 interview, Perez said he and Jordan “were like brothers.” When they joined the force, Perez said they had to deal with racism at work. But all that changed as a result of their savvy and hard work.
“We ended up forcing them to like us,” Perez said in 1997. “They depended on us.”
Having reached the rank of Lieutenant, Perez retired from the Aurora Police Department in 1979 to become undersheriff in Kane County. He stayed with the sheriff’s department for 13 years. He retired from law enforcement in 1992. Soon afterward, he became a member of the sheriff’s merit commission, the group that conducts testing for all county correctional officers and deputy sheriffs. In 2005, the City of Aurora honored Pete Perez, naming Front & High Street Pete Perez Place.
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