Hansen Commissioner

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Carl R. Hansen served as the Cook County (Illinois) Commissioner from 1976 to 2006. Hansen’s 30 years of service make him the second-longest serving member ever of the Cook County Board. As a Republican, Hansen was often on the opposite side of the aisle than the other members of the majority-Democratic board, however he was did not always vote solely based on Republican doctrine. Prior to his death in February 2010 at age 83, Hansen cited that his greatest political accomplishment was blocking a plan that would replace 600 acres of forest preserve with a landfill. In June 2010, a woods in Cook County—close to the forest preserve Hansen worked to save—was named in in his honor.