Does MPHS have photographs: No
Address in MP: 5 N. Wavery
Birth Date:
Death Date: 1987
Marriage Unknown
Interesting information on life, career, accomplishments:
Anton Dvylis was a local writer and community activist. As a senior citizen, this eastern European immigrant became a well known character around town through his column in local newspapers, his creative writing projects, and his work with local organizations, particularly those catering to senior citizens. One of his most interesting creative writing projects was a description of what he believed Mount Prospect will be like in the year 2076, which was written for a competition in 1976. The text of his essay is posted below, the original is on file at the Mount Prospect Historical Society.
WHAT WILL MY COMMUNITY BE LIKE IN THE YEAR 2076
By Anton J. Dvylis
This is 1976, the Bicentennial Year. It commemorates Uncle Sam’s 200th birthday. I am delighted to see that my community, Mount Prospect, is seriously involved in planning the most rousing celebration. As for myself, I feel fortunate for being at least a tiny part of these in honor of the greatest nation on earth.
Likewise, I consider it a blessing of being a resident of a community bearing a motto “Where friendliness is away of life”. I earnestly hope that by the year 2076 this motto will be deeply rooted in the hearts of sons and daughters of this community that it will develop into a full-blown “Brotherhood of Man,” with all prejudices, discriminations and inequities of whatever nature buried for ever into Vanishing past.
One of the outstanding characteristics of this Bicentennial Year has been an often heard question “What will my community be like in the year 2076?” Indeed, what will Mount Prospect be like in one hundred years from now?
According to one popular song, “What it will be, will be, the future is not for us to see.” However, you and I may brush aside this basic truth and do some speculating. We may cut our fancy loose and speculate without fear of being ridicules if our prediction came out wrong. For there and then neither you nor I will be around; nobody for that matter to call us crackpots.
Let me inject a little logic in this business of foretelling the future. Let’s hand our premise upon the basic facts that “The present, the today, is the product of the past, of yesterday; then the future will be, or must be, the product of the present, of today.” I think this puts us on the right track –more or less. Let’s start from the very beginning.
A century or so ago, Mount Prospect started as a tiny, sprout in the tangled wilderness, maybe as the Indian’s tepee or as a trapper’s hut. Through the decades that followed that tiny sprout grew in size, shedding off its primeval characteristics acquiring a progressive individuality, and in the end it emerged as a beautiful community of 1976.
What all this tells us? It testifies that the pioneers of Mount Prospect were hard working, ambitious and farsighted people. As a result of their toils and perseverance, today we are enjoying the products of their labors, of their accomplishments. What 1s there left us to do to make Mount Prospect a better community in 2076.
Let’s look around. Let’s walk down the streets of Mount Prospect. What do we find? What do we see?
The downtown area presents a variety of signs and sights. The village being nearly one hundred years old shows its senility in many places –many shabby structures, deteriorating under the weight of age. On the other hand, the imposing new bank building, the attractive Village Hall, the elegant new library and Post Office buildings still under construction are breathing with youth. They are the indicators of our communities’ leadership to keep Mount Prospect vibrant and growing. And we have the downtown renovation commission’s a promise that dramatic modernization is in its blueprints.
Further south we find the Weller Creek which, with its, primeval characteristics is still marring the neighborhood. This, too, needs attention of our leadership, and it will get it when our politicians come to a meeting or minds.
I have a feeling that Mt. Prospect in the year 2076 will be exotically different from what it is today. I am hopeful that out schools will, in coming decades, turn out a few geniuses who will revolutionize the life in all areas in this community.
Judging by its past, Mt. Prospect will continue to grow in population, in culture and otherwise. With its boundaries fixed as of now, the expansion by annexation is no longer possible. The commun1ty will have to grow from within. This means that era of single family homes is nearing the end, and the apartment complexes are underway. The high rises and skyscrapers will be common sights long before the year 2076 rings in.
Transportation and pollution are the t’i1ne that affect our environment at its very roots. Increased population will call for increased transportation, and more autos on our streets will produce more pollut1on. And our nearness to O’Hare Airfield will continue to confound our community’s problem. It is said that “Necessity is the mother of invention.” So we may hopefully look forward to the era of electr1cally drawn vehicles and perhaps to an entirely new type of transportation.
With the increase of population, a demand for more serv1ces from the community administration will also increase. This will lead to higher taxes. The inflation will remain with us forever to come. Consequently, the value of dollar will continue to slide down and the prices of goods and services to go up and up. More people will be dropping under poverty line. To alleviate this unpleasant situation, the federal government will interfere more and more in our daily lives.
As a consequence, I foresee that by the year 2076 about two-thirds of our community’s population would be receiving government subsidies of one kind or another. Unless a super-genius would come around and reverse the trend.
As for myself I shall leave complex troubles and problems to the leaders of the future generations to wrestle with. I shall continue to live the rest of my lifetime to the best of my ability to contribute whatever I can, or be able to, to the betterment of this community, my Mount Prospect. After me –after all of us –there will come around men and women with brighter minds to solve the arising problems.
The End