Lewis University Airport

Story

Lewis University Airport is a public airport located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Chicago, in the village of Romeoville in Will County, Illinois, United States. The Joliet Regional Port District assumed ownership of the airport in 1989. The National Weather Service Chicago, Illinois (Chicago Forecast Office) is adjacent to the airport.HistoryThe Great Depression brought tremendous despair to Chicago's inner city families, and many adolescent boys slipped into trouble with the law. Bishop Bernard J. Sheil knew that in the right surroundings, boys could be coached toward productive, law-abiding lives. The Catholic Youth Organization, which he founded in 1930, was a start. But Bishop Sheil dreamed of removing smart boys of low means from their depressed situation, and launching them onto a solid career path. Charles Lindbergh's great flight three years earlier had galvanized the nation toward the glamour and promise of aviation, so that same year, with no idea of where to get funding, Sheil founded the Holy Name School of Aeronautics. Coincidentally, Michael and Frances Fitzpatrick, devout Catholics who had homesteaded Lockport in the early nineteenth century, approached Cardinal Mundelein of the Chicago Archdiocese. They offered to donate 160 acres to the Church for "whatever purpose it might best be used." To the bishop and many others, the synchrony of these two events seemed divinely inspired. Michael Fitzpatrick (with shovel) and the general officers of the Holy Name Society break ground for "Holy Name Technical School" on February 9, 1931.