A couple easy ones to begin:

1. What is the Village’s motto and when was that motto adopted? (The Village of Vision, 1962)  And, what was it’s motto before? (“The world’s largest village.” As the story goes, someone informed Mayor Al Smith that Skokie no longer was the world’s largest village -- that there was larger one in the Netherlands – and Smith decided to change the motto.).
2. When was the Village incorporated and what was its name?  (1888, Niles Center)
3. Who owned and sold the properties where the two St. Peter Churches presently sit?  What are the names of the churches? (Peter Blaumeuster; St. Peter Roman Catholic Church and St. Peter’s United Church of Christ)

 A couple political oriented questions:

1. Which American president visited Skokie in the midst of bad rain storm and had to wear Fire Dept. boots when he visited the Holocaust Memorial Monument?  The autographed boots are in the Village’s memorabilia case.  (George H.W. Bush)
2. Which presidential contender visited the Festival of Cultures?  (Barack Obama)
3. Which Skokie Mayor was elected to the most terms and how many?  (Albert J. Smith, elected 5 times; served from 1965-1988)
4. Who was the only woman elected Mayor and how long did she serve?  (Jacqueline Gorell, 10 years)
5.  How many Blaumeusers served as Mayor?  (Two: Peter Blaumeuser III, 1895-97 and George Blaumeuser, 1933-1945)

History questions: events

9        Chicago had its Great Fire in 1870.  When was Skokie’s?  (1910)

1. Skokie was the first municipality in Illinois to create which commissions?  (Fine Arts and Human Relations Commissions)
2. What political party in Skokie initiated the council-manager form of government?

(Skokie Caucus Party)

1. Which person is most associated with the development of Old Orchard Shopping Center (now Westfield) and to what national position was he appointed?  (Phil Klutznick, Secretary of Commerce during the Lyndon Johnson Administration)
2. What is the most expensive public works project in the history of the Village? How much?  (Flood control, $80 million)
3. Skokie is home to Oakton Community College’s Ray Hartstein campus.  What sat on the site before?  (Niles East High School)
4. When did the Skokie Swift begin service and under what conditions?  (1964, it was a federal demonstration project of the U.S. Department of Transportation.  Before the Swift the Village was served by the North Shore Railroad.)
5. When did the Village surpass the 60,000 population mark?  (The census of 1960 officially marked the population at that amount.)
6. George C. Klehm (1839-1927) was one of the Village’s pioneers.  He had two daughters, Alma and Amelia.  What professions did the two girls enter?  (Amelia became a physician and Alma a teacher.  It was especially unusual for a woman to become a doctor during this era.)
7. Who is widely viewed as having coming up with the name “Skokie” for the name change of the Village?  When did the change of name go into effect? (Armond D. King, who served a Chairman of both the Plan Commission and Zoning Commission for many years The name change became official on November 15, 1940, after passage of a referendum and a vote by the Village Board.)
8. Who was Skokie’s first Mayor”  (Adam Harrer, 1888-1890)
9. Frank McCabe is longest serving Trustee in the history of the Village.  When was he first elected to the Village Board?  (1973)
10. Who is the longest serving Clerk in the history of the Village? (Marlene Williams, 1981 – Present.  William’s predecessor, William Segel, had the record, 1961-1982 before Williams broke it a couple years ago)

In case Neil King got all of them correct, this one is specifically meant to stump him:

1. How many men have served as Vice President under more than one President? (George Clinton under Thomas Jefferson and James Madison and John C. Calhoun under John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson.  It’s not a Skokie question but nevertheless intended to stump Neil.)

A few additional interesting questions:

1. Can you name the four (4) cemeteries in Skokie?  (St. Peter Roman Catholic, St Peter and St. Paul off Harms Road, and Memorial Park Cemetery)
2. Which gangster’s body was “dumped” in Skokie?  (Baby Face Nelson)
3. Who was responsible for laying out the streets in Skokie?  Hint: he was largely responsible for the Elevated train system in Chicago (Samuel Insull)
4. Who or what was Eadie Field? (It was the Civil Air Patrol landingstrip on McCormick Blvd.)
5. What is Edith Rockefeller McCormick’s connection to Skokie?  (She loaned money to her boyfriend who built the beautiful rental apartments – Devonshire Manor  -- on the north side of the Village.)