CHAMPAIGN — If Steve Apotheker hadn't created much of the area's recycling efforts back in the 1970s, somebody else probably would have. But he did, and became a recognized national leader in the zero waste movement.

Mr. Apotheker, 58, died June 20 in Portland, Ore,, where he moved in 1989 to work for a nationwide recycling journal, later to work in city government in his passion of waste reduction.

He had a debilitating neurological disease for the last six years but continued to work until May.

The creator of the Community Recycling Center lived here throughout the '70s and '80s, coming here to earn a master's degree in physics, and met his wife, Diane Meisenhelter, at a local dance.

Besides recycling, he was active in other social issues, getting arrested at a University of Illinois Board of Trustees meeting for protesting UI investment in apartheid-era South Africa.

Mr. Apotheker served as the president of the Illinois Recycling Association from 1985 to 1987 and was named Recycler of the Year for his work here at the National Recycling Congress in 1990, later earning a similar award in Oregon.

Elizabeth Markstahler, who worked alongside Mr. Apotheker at their $200-a-month Community Recycling Center job, said they "were young and dumb" and didn't mind the hardships.

That included a period when Mr. Apothker slept on the concrete floor on the Market Street facility.

"He had a brilliant mind, an incredible depth and range of knowledge, and he also had common-sense smarts," she said. "He became the recycling expert in the whole country."

Former Champaign Mayor Dannel McCollum said he was deeply moved by his friend's death at an early age.

In the 1970s, McCollum was president of Households Involved in Pollution Solutions, a grass-roots group that helped start CRC in 1978 in conjunction with Students for Environmental Concerns.

He met Mr. Apotheker while cleaning up spills at the old Champaign landfill, an old newspaper clipping recounts.

Mr. Apotheker was "determined and dedicated," McCollum said Wednesday.

"He was not only an ardent recycler, but became really the guru of recycling," McCollum said. "It was an inspiration to have someone who could really put the technical and moral aspects of it together."

A friend and former co-worker, Jerry Powell of Portland, said that physics education honed an analytical mind.

"Steve was a learned person with an acute and well-developed analytical ability. But he never lorded these skills over you. Many times he patiently, gracefully and warmly explained to me why my analysis was badly in error, but he never made me suffer for being so stupid. He always got you to the point where you'd say, 'Aha, now I get it,' Powell said in an email.

The recycling guru kept tabs on Champaign-Urbana's progress, or occasionally lack thereof, in its environmental protection.

In 2003, Mr. Apotheker told The News-Gazette that recycling efforts in Champaign-Urbana had come a long way.

"I think our community was a little bit ahead of the curve," he said. "It wasn't until the late '80s that the EPA really picked up on this issue and adopted their agenda for action. It's taken a long time for a grass-roots issue to become firmly established, institutionalized within our government service."

McCollum said Mr. Apotheker, who was known for being shy at times, was full of passion to do good.

"He had a way of being reasonable with people who disagreed with him. He had a soft touch. An agitator is usually in your face, but Steve made it work with knowledge, dedication and determination," the former mayor said.