Former Plainfield Parks Director Gregory Bott, dead at 61, remembered for his service

Retired Plainfield Park District Executive Director Gregory B. Bott – who saw Plainfield grow rapidly during three decades of service – died unexpectedly at age 61 after a stroke Sunday at Edward Hospital.

Bott worked at the Park District for 32 years, starting in the maintenance department in 1981 and working his way to executive director in 1985. He retired in 2013 – a bit more dramatically than he had planned that year.

During those years, he saw the village of Plainfield grow rapidly from a population of about 4,500 in 1990 to almost 40,000 by the 2010 census.

In 2016, the Park District honored his longtime service by renaming Renwick Community Park as Gregory B. Bott Community Park – where plans for a new recreation center he had envisioned also now underway.

That park especially was dear to him because of the effort he had put into its development, said both Park District Board President Mary Kay Ludemann and Plainfield Trustee Larry Newton.

The park in the center of the community and the recreation center were Bott’s “dream,” said Newton, who worked with him for 10 years as a Park District commissioner.

Although Bott was not able to enjoy his retirement as he had planned, Newton said that he was glad that he was able to witness the realization of the plans for the center, which were approved last year.

Both Newton and Ludemann said that the sudden death of their friend was “a shock,” especially since he recently had gotten engaged.

“He was a tremendous director, supervisor, advocate and lobbyist on behalf of the Park District, and he was a good friend of mine,” Newton said. “He will be missed.”

Ludemann remembered Bott as a person with a love for the parks department who “got to see Plainfield grow from a rural farm community to the sprawling suburban community it has become now.”

Bott, she said, worked with his staff to develop good relationships with the municipalities that the Park District worked within to make sure that land was set aside for parks and recreational purposes as the number of subdivisions in the area grew.

“He understood how it improved people’s quality of life to have recreational activities and spaces,” Ludemann said.

He also was “a very good steward of the Park District’s finances,” and “left the district in great financial shape by the time he retired,” she said.

Both Ludemann and Newton were on the board during the time of the controversial two-months-early forced retirement of Bott in 2013 by a newly seated board.

Bott planned to retire at the end of June that year but had his contract changed by a 3-1 vote by the new board headed by Peter Hurtado in May, and was replaced by then-Plainfield Trustee Garrett Peck, who had no experience in the parks department.

Peck resigned from that post eight months later amid controversy as well, and recently lost his bid for a third term on the Village Board.

Ludemann was the one who voted against that measure, while Newton was not present at the meeting.

“This was not a reflection on anything Greg had done,” Ludemann said. “The new board majority just had a different plan for the Park District, and Greg didn’t fit in with that plan.”

Newton said that one “would be hard-pressed to find any person as dedicated to public service as [Bott] was.”