Fran DuPey used to mess with George Van Til every so often when they served in County government.
Van Til would come before the Lake County Commissioners for Surveyor business, and everyone on the dais would appear to be listening half-heartedly as he made his pitches, he said Monday. But then, as people started filing in for the next meeting, Lake County’s first — and so far only — woman County Commissioner would set her sights on him.
“I’d be wrapping up and all of sudden, she would say, ‘Mr. Surveyor,’ and then would ask the most precise, intricate questions that she’d never brought up before. It startled me,” Van Til said. “Then she’d get that funny little Fran DuPey smile on her face that said, ‘Yep, I’m here, and I’m paying attention.’
“That was Fran. Those were the things you could count on that made her a person to be reckoned with.”
DuPey died November 21. She was 86.
Calling DuPey “bright and unpredictable,” Van Til said that as the first woman who served on the Lake County Council then as Commissioner, she never acted like the trailblazer she was. She was there to do her job.
“She came in and joked around like ‘one of the guys,’ then got down to business. She fit right in from the jump and was very effective, and I appreciated that a great deal,” he said. “Even though she was from Hammond, her service was not just to Hammond, but to all of Lake County.”
When DuPey later moved to Schererville, Van Til said she couldn’t resist an opportunity to make an impact and ran for the St. John Township Board in 2018 even though her health was starting to fail. She breezed through the primary but ultimately lost.
“A lot of good things were accomplished because of her,” he said.
DuPey served on the Lake County Board of Commissioners for 16 years, opting not to run again at the end of 2011 — the same year her husband, former Hammond Police Chief Frank DuPey, died. Prior to that, she was the first woman to serve on the Lake County Council, which she did for 10 years.
Hammond Councilman Dave Woerpel, D-5, attested to DuPey’s force-of-nature demeanor.
“I met Fran in the early 90s before I got involved in politics. She insisted that I did and appointed me as a precinct committee person,” Woerpel said. “I always loved her sense of humor and brutal honesty.”
DuPey was also an avid volleyball player, and she and her husband spent a lot of time on their boat between Florida and here, Van Til said.
DuPey is survived by her loving children: Veronica (Kevin) DuPey-Banik, and Frank E. DuPey. She is also grandmother (GG) to Allen DuPey, Frank M., and Dawson DuPey, Ashley Foster, and London Foster; beloved sister to Helen Sutton and Nikkilyn Foster; and special cousin to Linda Gift.
The funeral service for DuPey is scheduled for 9 a.m. Tuesday, November 25, 2025, at Hillside Funeral Home, 8941 Kleinman Rd., Highland; with burial to follow at Catholic Cemeteries, St. John/St. Joseph in Hammond. Memorials to Shriner’s Children’s Hospital in her name would be greatly appreciated.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.