Please tell us a little about yourself/family and you/their history with Batavia.
I’m a fourth generation Batavia family. My great grandparents on both sides of my family lived in Batavia. They settled here in 1881. Our family has six generations that lived here. Both of my daughters live and have grandchildren that live here.

What high school and year did you graduate?
I graduated from Batavia high school in 1969. We were the first class that went thru the New high school.

What can you say about your time at Batavia? How did it help prepare you for success
later in life?
The Batavia school system definitely prepared me for success later in life. I look back on my elementary school teachers who set the foundation for my education growth. Mrs. Hankes, my 1st grade teacher, Mrs.Hauman, 2nd grade teacher and Mrs.Bulley, my 3rd grade, gave me the skills to get thru the rest of my schooling at Batavia and college.

What did you do after high school? Did you go to college, enter the workforce, or join the
military?
After high school I went to college at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. I played football and lacrosse in college and majored business/accounting and had a minor in Spanish. I passed the CPA exam and went to work in public accounting in Chicago. I then spent another ten years working for major corporations before joining the family business at Batavia Avenue Chevrolet and becoming a third generation auto dealer.

What is your greatest professional/personal accomplishment?
My professional/personal accomplishments include serving as a past president of the local Chamber of Commerce, past president of the Batavia Rotary Club, and member of the Batavia Historical Society. I have held several leadership positions in my church, which is Bethany Lutheran Church in Batavia. I also served on the Delnor/Community Hospital board of directors and was their finance chairperson.

Professionally, I am a member of the AICPA and Illinois CPA societies. I served on The board of the Illinois Auto Dealers Association and was the chairperson of the
IADA Health Insurance Trust. I was a liaison between the IADA and the National Auto Dealers Association on Legislative Affairs. I have tried to give back to my community at a local, state, and national level.

Were there any teachers or other staff members who you can think of who had an impact
on you during your time in Batavia?
Some teachers that had an impact on me at Batavia were middle school teachers Bobby Phillips and Tom Greer. High school teachers that had an impact were Phyllis Ream- English, Cliff Avis- Chemistry, Tom Gerry- geometry and Bill Scraseth- Spanish.

Do you have any interesting or fun stories or memories to share about your time in high school?

I have a couple of fun stories. One was being a player on Coach Van’s basketball teams.

During the season he wanted the team to stay focused on basketball and he had strict rules we had to follow. A couple rules that we all remember was he required us to wear hats when outside so we wouldn’t get sick. If he saw us without a hat on, we would have to run minute drills numerous times to remind us to wear hats. Luckily, I didn’t have to run those at all. 

But another rule was he didn’t want you spending a lot of time hanging around in the hallways of school with your girlfriend. If he caught you doing that you would run minute 

drills. He would even drive around town checking to see if you were over at your girl’s house, and if he saw that you were there you had to run minute drills. He wanted us to focus on our studies and basketball. Needless to say, I ran a lot of minute drills.

Another story is boys will be boys and try anything once at our age back then.

We would go to the library to study on occasion. One night, Craig Sager, Tom Cornwell, Greg Issel, Tom Upham and I were all there. Craig, both Toms, and Greg got the idea to photocopy a dollar bill at the library and see if they could cash it in the Olmstead’s change machine, downhill from the library. They had a laundromat there. Well, it worked. They got four quarters from the machine! 

 They went back to the library and made more copies of the dollar bill and went down to cash them. Lee Olmstead wondered why they kept coming in but didn’t think anything of it until he emptied the machine the next morning to find copies of the dollar bills. He then thought, oh that’s why the boys kept stopping in. In a small town he knew their parents and called them up. Needless to say, the boys had to help Lee around the store and give him back the coins that they got. This would not be the case today, I’m sure.

Me, I knew they would be caught and just smiled as they worked at the store.

My point was Batavia was a great place to grow up in. Craig, as he became a successful sports reporter, would say that he never forgot where he grew up and the wonderful childhood we all had. He would always say that he was from Batavia, Illinois. 

If you are retired, are there any ways you have stayed connected or involved with Batavia?

I am a member of the Batavia Historical Society. I stay active in alumni activities like

The Batavia Baseball Golf outing and follow Batavia City Council actions voicing my opinions on their actions that affect Batavia. I’m still very active in my church.

Is there anything else about yourself or your time in Batavia that you would like to share with us?

I couldn’t have accomplished what I have done without the support of my loving wife of 48 years, Karol. We have four wonderful children, all Batavia grads, - JD, Katie, Jim, and Jenny.

Our seven grandchildren keep us active and young, which is a great blessing too.