Longtime Kendall County historian Roger Matile honored as Citizen of the Year

Roger Matile has dedicated his life to preserving the history of Kendall County.

“This award is really for people who make the community better."

—  Kendall County Board Chairman Matt Kellogg

For his efforts, the Kendall County Board at its May 21 meeting honored the longtime Kendall County resident – who is the volunteer director of the Little White School Museum in Oswego – as the Kendall County Citizen of the Year. During the meeting, board members approved a resolution honoring him as Citizen of the Year.

“This award is really for people who make the community better,” Kendall County Board Chairman Matt Kellogg said. “They’re people who go about their daily lives not worried about recognition. They are that fabric of the community that really pulls things together and Roger really fits this.”

The Citizen of the Year award was created last year. The resolution honoring him as Citizen of the Year noted that Matile “has selflessly devoted countless hours to the Little White School Museum in Oswego and was honored for his more than 30 years of service as the museum’s volunteer director. Roger serves as a role model for citizenship and volunteerism through his preservation efforts for the Little White School Museum building that dates back to the 1850s.”

Matile served as the editor of the Ledger-Sentinel for 28 years and wrote and published the books “A Bicentennial History of Kendall County, Illinois” and “150 Years Along the Fox: The History of Oswego Township, Illinois.”

He continues to write a local history column, “Reflections,” that is published in the Oswego Ledger and Record newspapers. In talking about his historic preservation work, Matile referred to the Joni Mitchell song “Big Yellow Taxi.”

In the song, Mitchell sings about how “they paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

“That’s what we’re working frantically to do, to preserve a little bit of history before that happens,” Matile said.

Along with being honored as Citizen of the Year, Matile also received a Kendall County Historic Preservation Commission Award for a lifetime of dedication to the field of historic preservation. Kellogg said it is a coincidence that Matile received both awards at the meeting.

“I had no idea that group was working on honoring him at the same time as I was,” Kellogg said.

Kellogg said Matile’s legacy will be “everlasting.”

“If you read the articles that he writes about the history of the county, those are the stories that are going to outlive all of us in the room,” he said. “So thank you for the legacy that you’ve created.”