06/16/2026
I am proud to honor a true legend, Frank Casillas, because unfortunately, far too many people under 40 years of age have probably never heard of him, a modest gentleman, a home boy raised by loving hard-working parents who sacrificed everything for their children so they could have a better life. Frank did not disappoint.
Frank Casillas was born in Michoacan, Mexico and immigrated to America with his parents as a 5-year old child. The family settled in East Chicago, Indiana. While his father worked in the steel mills, Casillas attended and excelled in school, graduating from Washington High School in 1944 and Purdue University in 1948 with a degree in engineering. He then joined the Army and attended officer training school and graduated at the top of his class. He fought in the Korean War and was awarded a Bronze Star for bravery.
After the war and for the next 30 years, Frank Casillas had a very successful engineering career. As it ended, a bigger opportunity knocked on his door. President Ronald Reagan appointed him Assistant Secretary of Labor, making him one of the highest ranking Hispanics in the federal government. When he returned and settled in Downers Grove, Illinois, then-governor Jim Edgar appointed him director of institutions, overseeing a variety of financial institutions.
I first heard about Frank Casillas during the presidential campaign of 1980. Ben Fernandez sought the Republican nomination for president of the United States, the first Hispanic to seek the presidency. Fernandez was considered to be the best candidate at several political events, called cattle-shows, but he didn't have the money or name recognition compared to Ronald Reagan or that of former Texas governor John Connally. To help him in Indiana and Illinois, Fernandez enlisted the help of his friend and colleague Frank Casillas, the most prominent Hispanic in political circles in the Midwest. Later, they both worked in the Reagan administration after Reagan defeated incumbent president Jimmy Carter. I was the Carter campaign's Hispanic vote coordinator in Ohio and met Ben Fernandez when he campaigned there.
I was on the losing side of that election, thanks in part to Ben Fernandez and Frank Casillas, the dynamic-duo of American politics in those years. Soon after that election I moved to Chicago, where I met Frank Casillas. Both men earned my respect and admiration, but Frank Casillas was in a class of his own. He died in May of this year at 100 years of age.
Dr. Juan Andrade, Jr.
President
United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, Inc.
Photo credit: Chicago Tribune
