Dooley (Thomas) Park

In 1960, the Central Park and St. Louis Improvement Association suggested the creation of a park and school within a manufacturing district that would soon be redeveloped for residential housing. Winston Homes, Inc. agreed to sell four acres at the corner of St. Louis Avenue and 77th Street for the project. By the end of 1967, the Chicago Park District had acquired three acres and the Board of Education had acquired one acre to create a jointly-operated school-park. However, the Board of Education soon began questioning the need for a new school here. The Park District improved its three acres and named the site Dooley Park in 1974. After the contiguous Board of Education parcel remained unimproved for years, the Park District acquired the land to expand Dooley Park in 1991. In 2003, the Chicago Park District transferred a portion of the park to the City of Chicago for the Board of Education’s new building that would provide shared space for both agencies.

Thomas A. Dooley (1927-1961) devoted his life to caring for sick people in remote areas of foreign countries. After serving as a navy medical corpsman from 1944 to 1946, Dooley received his medical degree from St. Louis University in 1953. He rejoined the navy, and in 1954, at the end of the war in Indochina, Dooley assisted in evacuating refugees from communist North Viet Nam. Dooley wrote a best-selling book, Deliver Us From Evil, describing this work. After resigning from the navy, Dooley used the book's proceeds to establish a medical clinic in Laos in 1956. He went on to establish additional hospitals in other remote regions, traveling to the U.S. only often enough to raise money for these efforts. Dooley's work was cut short by his death from cancer at the young age of 34.