MPHS Fall Newsletter 2025

Sticking it to Polio in Mount Prospect

By Emily Dattilo

Autumn leaves and crisp air brought more than relief from hot summer weather in the mid-20th century; the changing seasons also marked the end of the summer polio season.  Polio is a highly infectious viral disease that attacks the nervous system and often leads to paralysis or death.  Young children are particularly susceptible to it.  Although there has been evidence of polio for centuries, there were several epidemics in the United States between 1948 and 1955. 

Mount Prospect was no exception to these recurring epidemics.  Newspapers regularly reported children contracting polio or, in the case of Central School student Jean Thornton, dying of the disease. 

The first major breakthrough in preventing polio arrived with the Salk vaccine, an injection licensed in the U.S. in April 1955.  Once the vaccine was approved, Mount Prospect’s chairman of the board of health, Dr. William Bagnuolo, and public school nurse Hannah Wilson lost no time in coordinating a community vaccination distribution for all first and second graders in local public and private schools.  The vaccines were free, just as inventor Dr. Jonas Salk intended.  

On April 27th, the polio vaccination clinic opened in Central School’s gymnasium.  604 students arrived in groups from Lincoln School (then an elementary school), Fairview School, St. Raymond Catholic School, St. Paul Lutheran School, St. John Lutheran School (then in Elk Grove Village), and, of course, Central School.  Each school was responsible for transporting their own students to the clinic.

This village-wide effort was made possible by an extensive group of volunteers.  In addition to Dr. Bagnuolo, Drs. Louise Koester, Alfred Wolfarth, and Louis Leone administered the vaccines.  Each of these doctors had offices in Mount Prospect and likely knew many of these children.  Volunteer nurses, many of whom were local mothers, also stepped up to provide care.  The Central School PTA supported these volunteer nurses by arranging for babysitters for their young children.  Other school mothers kept track of over 600 parental consent forms, as well as the vaccine records.

Outside of the school communities, other Mount Prospect residents helped, too.  Mount Prospect police officers delivered the precious vials of the polio vaccine to Central School.  Jack Keefer, pharmacist and owner of Keefer’s Pharmacy, provided additional syringes at cost when it became apparent that the clinic would run of out of syringes for all of the children.  Keefer also took the photos included in this article.  As a pharmacist and later a founding member of the Historical Society, Keefer clearly understood the historic importance of this clinic.  To the students, the most important contributions were probably the lollipops provided by Fred Meeske, owner of Meeske’s grocery store. 

On the whole, the 1955 polio vaccination clinic was a successful community effort and an excellent example of the wonderful things that can happen when a community collaborates.