Mario Lavorato, 33, of Berwyn and formerly of Riverside, died Sept. 25, 2011.
Mr. Lavorato was born March 10, 1978 and grew up in Berwyn. He attended Morton West High School, where he was dubbed one of the “three musketeers” who helped oust that school district’s superintendent in 1993. Mr. Lavorato and his student compatriots organized a petition drive urging the resignation of Supt. Allen Klingenberg, complaining of financial shenanigans. Klingenberg was removed later that year.
When Lavorato was 23 years old, after moving to Riverside, he ran unopposed for a seat on the Riverside-Brookfield High School District 208 Board of Education. He won election in 2001. Two years later he made an unsuccessful bid to become Riverside village clerk as an independent.
But before Lavorato could finish out his first term as a District 208 school board member, health issues forced him to resign in December 2004.
Lavorato was also a newspaper columnist, who wrote a chatty column he called Mario’s Mark – dishing out celebrity and political items for the Berwyn Gazette. When that paper folded, he started The Mark News Online, an Internet-only publication.
But Mr. Lavorato’s health continued to be a problem, and he was hospitalized repeatedly for pancreatitis.
After parting ways with the Mark News Online in 2010, he started a blog version of Mario’s Mark in July 2011, announcing a return to full-time reporting in September. In August, he announced that he was being released from the hospital and was going to consult with a surgeon at University of Chicago Hospital.
“It has been a rough go these last few years, but with God’s blessing and the power of novenas to our family’s patron, St. Barbara, I remain strong and hopeful,” he wrote on Aug. 13.
Mr. Lavorato was the son of Attilio and Sharon Lavorato, and the brother of Nick and Joe Lavorato. Services have been held.
