ROGERS PARK — Pratt Beach Park was renamed this week in honor of late community activist Tobey Prinz, who championed a movement in the '50s and '60s to prevent high-rise development along Rogers Park's lakefront, officials said.
A vote Wednesday by the Chicago Park District's Board of Commissioners approved the renaming after a 45-day public comment period, said Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulkner.
Prinz's son, Fred Schein, had worked for years to collect newspaper articles, books and old photographs, building his case that his mother deserved a beach named after her.
"I was elated," said Schein, 65. "I’ve been thinking about that moment for quite some time."
Prinz was the champion of the neighborhood's "Save the Beaches" campaign, which aimed to thwart developers from staking claim to Rogers Park's lakefront beginning in the 1950s.
"I used to paddle along with my mother in the sand as she solicited for signatures," Schein said in November.
Park District officials didn't say when signs at the park would reflect its new name, but Schein said he hoped to hold a ceremony this summer at Loyola Park's popular Artists of the Wall Festival.
