RW Keys and Son - Resource Bank

RESOURCE BANK
Their new Malta branch
says “community”
RW Keys and Son
Rescuing architectural treasures
LabelTek
They’re into labels
Service Concepts
Turning up the heat on service
VOL. 4, ISSUE 4

FEATURING...
14 Resource Bank, Malta
COMMUNITY
Resource Bank celebrates its Malta connection with
style . . . and service.

Winter, 2010
Winter
5 Yvonne A. Johnson
THEN & NOW
Still teaching . . . still learning
8 LabelTek
SUCCESS
High-tech labels for a demanding marketplace
12 Jeremy O’Brien
LIFESTYLE
Did you say 180 mph?
22 RW Keys and Son
ABOUT THE CRAFTSMAN
Award-winning team restores a Chicago landmark
4 President’s Desk
18 Season’s Feature
Service Concepts
27 Event Calendar
28 Winter Reverie
555 BETHANY ROAD
DEKALB, IL 60115
• • •
DEKALB COUNTY’S FIRST
BUSINESS TO BUSINESS MAGAZINE
• • •
© 2010 Resource Bank

4
Dear Friends:
From the Desk of the President
As we go to press with this issue of Your Resource for Living magazine, it’s cold
and snowy outside, and we’re approaching the end of another year. It’s the season
for spending time with friends and family, enjoying each other’s company, and just
catching up with each other’s lives.
For some of our friends featured in this issue, that season stretches year round—
a benefi t of working in a family business. Consider identical twin brothers Dean
and Duane Hummell, the driving force behind LabelTek. They’ll tell you they are
nothing alike, and yet their complementary differences have opened a profi table
niche for their company in the label manufacturing business.
Russ and Kim Harrelson, owners of Service Concepts, Inc. in Genoa, fi nd that the
best way to fi nd time for friends and family is to work with each other and make
sure that their employees and their clients are their friends.
Our artisan in this issue has a story to tell about generations of fathers and sons
(and a very important uncle) passing along knowledge and skills that contribute to
our larger family, the community, by preserving its architectural treasures.
And who knows more about extended family than Yvonne Johnson, who has given
her all to thousands of children over the years, many of them now successful adults
who are no doubt passing along the lessons they learned from her.
It’s also the season for refl ecting on the changes the past year has brought. Just
a year ago we broke ground at our new Malta location. Today it’s a busy place,
providing enhanced access and convenience to our customers. We hope you’ll stop
in to experience the expanded services available at our new facility—or just to
spend a little time with your friends at Resource during this special season.
The Resource family wishes you happiness and prosperity in the coming year—
and the time to enjoy your friends, your family, and your community.
Sincerely,

Yvonne A. Johnson
Educator • Traveler • Character
On paper, Yvonne A. Johnson is technically retired, but there’s nothing the least
bit retiring about this lifelong educator, world traveler, and self-proclaimed “town
character.” Although her career in the Sycamore schools offi cially concluded in 2002,
she still goes in every day to tutor children in writing, reading, and mathematics. “Once
you’ve taught, you can’t quit,” she states matter-of-factly. “You’re always going to be
teaching one way or another, in one thing or another.”
For Yvonne, education is like one of the family
heirlooms that grace her home. Her experiences
in area schools date back to the early years
of the last century, and through her stories
Yvonne weaves
the events of her
life into a nearly
seamless history
of public education
in DeKalb County,
from one-room
schoolhouses to
Northern Illinois
University. “My
mother taught;
my sister taught; my brother-in-law taught; I
have aunts and cousins who taught, but I’m the
one who stayed with it.” That seems a bit of an
understatement as she refl ects on a career that
has spanned 51 years . . . and counting.
Yvonne’s mother, Virginia Nelson, was among
the fi rst pupils to attend Northern Illinois
State Normal School. At that time, overfl ow
students from local elementary schools were
sometimes
Students haven’t changed
over the years. They’re just
exposed to a lot more than
we were at that age.
taught at the
Normal School,
and Virginia
was in the 5 th
grade when she
fi rst attended
the school that
would one
day become
Northern Illinois
University. “Dr. John Cook, then president
of the school, would meet the students at the
door,” Yvonne muses, “and the youngsters
would hold up their shoes to show him that
they were clean.” Later, Virginia attended a
5

You don’t put your arm around
one kid until you can put it
around all of them.
summer session up at “the Normal” to prepare her
for teaching, and at age 19 she set out to become the
new schoolmarm at Schandelmeier School on Cherry
Valley Road, where she boarded with the Germanspeaking
family next door.
Like her mother, Yvonne fi rst taught in a one-room
schoolhouse, but her path to the profession was
a little different. By the time Yvonne attended
Northern in the late 1940s, it had become Northern
Illinois State Teacher’s College and was bustling
with “G.I. Joes.” She majored in home economics,
but by graduation time she was still unsure what
career she wanted to pursue. Her mother gently
suggested teaching, and Yvonne, age 20, took the
opening at Love School on Barber Greene Road. “I
stayed two years, ’51-’52, and in those two years I
had 96 kids,” she recalls. They were mostly children
of itinerant families who would come up from the
South, earn money, and go back home, but Yvonne
remembers some of them very vividly: “I had one
little guy whose dad gave him a glass of beer every
day—six years old.”
Conditions at Love were hardly lovely, and Yvonne
would often come home at the end of a day and pour
her frustrations out to her mother. “I really had a
mess there,” Yvonne admits, “but I had a couple of
little ones who were just sweethearts, and I would
talk about them. My mother would look at me and
say, ‘You don’t put your arm around one kid until
you can put it around all of them.’ That advice
Yvonne’s mother, Virginia Nelson, with her students in front of a one-room schoolhouse.

has always stayed with me.” When Yvonne fi nally
left Love, she was replaced with someone who was
expected to “really control those kids.” “He threw
chalkboard erasers at them. He didn’t last long,” she
recalls, with a hint of satisfaction.
Perhaps a little daunted, but undeterred, Yvonne
then took a classroom in the Sycamore schools. Being
a graduate of Sycamore High School herself, she was
no stranger to the district. She remembers when she
entered the high school, as a transfer student from
St. Charles, that it was like “going from daylight to
darkness.” Wealthy St. Charles had a short 9 to 3
day, audiovisual
materials,
tracking,
and
hands-on
learning.
“I came to
Sycamore,”
she shakes
her head,
“and it was
8 to 4, with
no audiovisual
aids; kids would pile on the running boards of
old cars for fi eld trips. My parents never knew that.”
However, Yvonne’s experience as both a student
and a teacher in Sycamore gives here a unique
perspective from which to appreciate the
development of District 427 into what she
proudly calls “one of the top school districts in
the state.” As an educator in Sycamore for
49 years, Yvonne has witnessed a lot of positive
change since her days there as a student, and
she was responsible for a great deal of it. She
developed innovative elementary science curricula,
promoting “hands-on” science teaching from her
position as Science Committee Chair. She also
conducted workshops for teachers throughout
Illinois and wrote numerous National Science
Foundation grants for science education.
In the late 1980s, Yvonne was selected to
participate in a NASA program for elementary
teachers at the Lewis Research Center in Cleveland,
now the Glenn Research Center. “People thought I
was spacey enough, but I got even spacier,” she jokes.
In fact, she returned to the NASA program for two
more summers as a faculty coordinator and traveled
around the country presenting workshops.
She recalls those years as very busy and very
satisfying. “In the 1980s and ’90s, I’d travel all over
the state of Illinois, even all over the United States,
and I’d meet somebody who’d say, ‘You’re from
Sycamore? Why is your school system so good?’ I’d
tell them: It’s a supportive community, a community
that pulls together and values education.”
If a supportive community builds good schools,
supportive teachers build strong communities, and
today Yvonne’s “kids” number in the thousands,
many of them successful men and women
throughout the region and far beyond. Both
Sycamore S
Mayor M
Mundy M and
DeKalb D
Mayor M
Povlsen P
are a former
students. s
“I’ve “ got
a lot of
teachers t
out o there,
too. t I’ve got
ministers, m
doctors, Ph.D.s, and every so often I’ll catch up with
them,” she says. She recalls a man who dropped
by her classroom one afternoon in the late 1990s.
Yvonne confesses, “I hoped he couldn’t read my
mind because he had been just a terrible student.
Then he proceeded to tell me, ‘I had to come back
and fi nd you. You turned my life around. I’m in
computers now in Silicon Valley.’ They show up like
that, every so often.”
Today, Yvonne works one-on-one with some of the
most vulnerable students, the ones who struggle to
read at all, much less at grade level. “One young
man I worked with wanted to write a paragraph
about a subject he was personally interested in,
and I knew there were several businesses around
the area where I could pick up brochures on this
particular subject, so I did. He used these for
background, and he wrote his story. He got it done
and he could read it; he read it to his teacher, he
read it to his class, and he took it home to read to
Mom. And this was a ‘nonreader’ just last year.”
For over half a century, Yvonne A. Johnson has
been fi nding ways to put her arm around every
child, and “retirement” notwithstanding, she isn’t
about to stop now.

8
LABEL THEM SUCCESSFUL
The key to success in the fl exographic printing
industry is, well . . . fl exibility. No one knows this
better than Dean Hummell, founder and president of
LabelTek, Inc., in Aurora. Dean entered the printing
industry as a teenager and for the past 26 years has
been growing and innovating his own business from a
one-man/one-press operation into a national player in
a highly specialized niche.
Flexographic printing is a custom process that
transfers images onto plastics, fi lms, and foil
materials with extraordinary clarity and super-highresolution
graphics. LabelTek’s particular expertise is
in pressure-sensitive (peel-and-stick) labels, packaging
fi lm, and foil lids for food, medical, and chemical
products. “Literally, we can do just about anything,”
Dean says. “If you can dream it up, we can pretty

[ This
much make it happen.” And he’s not exaggerating;
LabelTek prints packaging for everything from
yoghurt to break fl uid.
“I’ve never done anything else,” Dean explains. “When
I started right out of high school, it was really just
glorifi ed rubber stamping.
We were using a rubber plate
that you wrapped around a
cylinder with double-faced
tape and smashed against
the paper. The registration
was horrible, and the rubber
plate moved all over the
place. We could never do
the kinds of things we do
now even 15 years ago. This
whole industry is nothing but
constant change.”
Much of that change is driven
by consumers. In today’s
marketplace, shoppers
demand more and more
information on packaging,
and the FDA and USDA
set very specifi c regulations for product labeling as
well. The variety of packaging materials is always
expanding, too, in the pursuit of shelf life, freshness,
and environmental responsibility. These interests
sometimes compete with the marketers’ desire to
display their products in the most attractive and
persuasive manner possible. “That’s quite a printing
challenge,” Dean admits. “Our design department has
to get nutrition information, UPC
code, and maybe even a kosher
symbol in a tiny space, sometimes
on thin, clear plastic, and the client
always wants to put more of the product qualities
on the front and cram everything else on the back in
4-point type. It’s really pretty diffi cult to do.”
is an example of 4-point type. ]
For the handful of printers willing to take on that
challenge, the rewards can be great. “The foil lids
industry is huge,” Dean says. “Mott’s Apple Sauce
alone takes 280 million lids a month.” With numbers
like that, it’s easy to see the attraction for a lifelong
entrepreneur like Dean. LabelTek is one of only six
printers in the country handling the foil lids, but the
company has defi ned its own niche even within this
niche industry: short runs. LabelTek was the fi rst
newcomer ne new to the market
in 20 years because they
saw sa saw an opportunity with
small sm s and medium-size
clients cl clie ie that the fi ve other
printers pr p i in the fi eld just
weren’t we w interested in. “If
you yo don’t order 10 million
lids li lid at a time, the other
guys gu g won’t take you on as
a customer, but we’ll run
50,000 5 for a client, which
gives g him the ability
to t do private-label
products. pr It’s important
for fo for our success to make
our clients successful.”
[ ]
Dean and Kimberly Hummell H mell have have worked
worked
together in the company since its beginning.
The strategy seems to be
working. In June, Dean
moved operations from Yorkville into a new, spacious
facility in Aurora. The new space is three times larger,
clean, and bright. “We’re not tripping over each other,”
Dean adds. While it’s not easy to move a printing
company, LabelTek pulled it off in less than ten days,
and the temporary disarray was well worth it: “We’re
more organized here, with better work fl ow. Our
production went up when we moved in here without
adding any new accounts.”
LabelTek prides itself on lean effi ciency. The entire
operation runs with 18 human employees and one
bashful parrot in the front offi ce, a green-cheeked
conure named Peanut. Except for the bird, everyone
is always busy. “You won’t see non-productive people
standing around their area waiting for work,” Dean
remarks; “everyone wears several hats around here.”
He attributes LabelTek’s work ethic largely to the
strength of his family. “My wife, Kimberly, has been
9

10
with me in the business from the very beginning,
and she does all our accounting and billing. My
father-in-law was my partner for eight years before
he retired, and then I brought in my brother. I’ve
got my daughter and a nephew here. We’re really all
partners.”
Dean’s identical twin brother, Duane, is Vice
President of Operations, but these brothers are
quick to emphasize that titles don’t matter much to
them. Although the spittin’ image of one another,
the Hummell brothers bring very different skills to
“It’s important
for our success to
make our clients
successful.”
—Dean Hummell
[ ]
Dean and Peanut
their business. Duane had run a successful engine
rebuilding business for more than 15 years while
Dean was busy building the printing company.
Then, when the market for rebuilt engines literally
disappeared in the late ’90s, Duane looked around for
another opportunity. About that time, LabelTek had
hit a plateau in growth, so Dean joined forces with
Duane to help move the operation to the next level.
“There’s a time in business when you’ve got to hire the
second guy,” Duane says, “the second guy that’s an
extension of you. Who better than your twin brother?
We look alike, but we don’t see things the same way.
And look what we’ve done in ten years.”
Along the back wall of the shop is tangible evidence of
what the Hummell brothers have done together. Wide
sheets of printed foil lids are being stamped out four
at a time and hand-packed for shipping. The three
machines never miss a beat—penny, penny, penny—
in perfect synchronization. LabelTek designs and
builds this machinery in-house, and it’s equipment
that no one else in the industry has. Because there’s
practically no profi t margin on labels and lids, a
printer must either run enormous quantities or
constantly innovate more effi cient processes.
“A partner with a machine shop background has a lot
to offer a printer,” Duane says, describing himself as
“machine-shop handy.” “Dean and I put our heads
together and fi gure out how we want the process
to work, and I draw it up. A shop makes the parts
and we assemble here.” A short-run specialist like
LabelTek fi nds its advantage in that kind of ingenuity.
In the shop, Dean’s daughter, Lindsey, oversees
production and shipping. “Lindsey knows how to run
every piece of equipment,” says her boss and proud
dad. “She’s made it so Duane and I can stay up front
and do what we need to do.” But one job description is
conspicuously absent here: “Salesperson.”
“We’ve never had to have salespeople,” Dean says with
satisfaction, “because we’re the kind of company that
when we get an account, we keep it. If you marry
your customers, you don’t have to have salespeople.
Then, when a little guy you’ve treated well gets big,

you get that work too. There are no small
customers.”
Dean Hummell’s business philosophy is
pretty down-to-earth. He’s reluctant to
talk about goals and growth at all. “That’s
a problem with American industry,” Dean
argues. “They go after their goals, and then
they’re overextended . . . and then they’re
out of business. Our goal is to make a good
living, have a great place to come to work,
and be happy.” As you might suspect,
LabelTek is growing anyway, at 20-30%
a year.
In Dean’s words, “That’s a byproduct of how
we do business, not the goal.”
Duane Hummell shows off some of
[ LabelTek’s high-tech food labeling. ]
Lindsey, Dean’s daughter, knows how to run
[ every piece of equipment at LabelTek.
]
LabelTek was fed up with
“changing banks.”
On paper, the company
appeared to have
changed banks
fi ve times in six years,
but Dave Maroo
knew that wasn’t
the whole story.
In fact, LabelTek had
never changed banks;
it was the banks
that kept changing.
Finally, LabelTek really did
make a change,
to Resource:
“I want a bank that’s
going to work with us
and stay with us.”
—Dean Hummell
11

12
Jeremy O’Brien
Resource Bank’s High Speed Connection
Jeremy looks on as a Ruh Roh bike leaves the line.

Leave it to Resource Bank to employ an IT
specialist who doesn’t fi t the mold. We all
know the stereotype: a nerdy guy who lords
the mysteries of the computer network over
his co-workers, scolds you for forgetting
your password, and makes fun of you for not
knowing a hard drive from a wi-fi connection.
Jeremy O’Brien, on the other hand,
strikes you as calm, patient, and willing
to discuss any subject within the scope of
his experience. “I have a pretty broad job
description here,” he laughs. “If it has a
plug, I’m responsible for making sure it
works. That includes computers, but it also
includes the coffee maker, phones, lights—
you name it.”
Technical savvy seems to come naturally
to Jeremy. Holder of a Computer Science
degree from NIU, as well as Network
Certifi cation from Kishwaukee College, Jeremy also
owns O’Brien’s Automotive in Kirkland, where he
pitches in on evenings and weekends. “I bought a
broken motorcycle with my own money when I was a
kid, and I had to fi x it in order to ride it. Engines and
motorcycles have been in my blood ever since.”
Maybe having an identity that extends beyond his 9 to 5
job explains why Jeremy doesn’t seem anything like the
stereotypical techie. However, it doesn’t quite explain
his “hobby.” Seven or eight times a year he travels to
a racetrack, sits down on a motorcycle fueled by highly
explosive nitro-methane, and launches himself down
a quarter-mile track at speeds up to 180 mph. Did we
mention that the front wheel of the motorcycle comes
off the ground at takeoff, meaning that the rider has to
steer this bomb on wheels using only his body weight?
So much for belonging to the geek club.
When he isn’t wiring networks or replacing
transmissions on mini-vans, Jeremy is a member
of the Ruh Roh drag-motorcycle racing team (think
Scooby Doo, and you’ll get the pronunciation right).
Headquartered in Indiana at the custom bike shop
owned by his friend Dean Mickley, the Ruh Roh
group not only races their own bikes, but builds highperformance
engines for other racers, including the
current national record holder for the quarter mile.
“I got involved in motorcycle drag racing about ten
years ago, through a neighbor,” says Jeremy. “I’ve
been in love with the sport ever since.” Asked what
it feels like to go 180 miles an hour—essentially on a
unicycle—Jeremy falls back on statistics: “You pull
about 2 G’s. Basically, your weight doubles in a couple
of seconds. It’s a pretty amazing feeling.”
As the front wheel comes off the ground, the motorcycle
becomes a 180 mph unicycle.
When he’s out with the team, Jeremy spends more time
working on the bikes’ engines than actually racing.
“Ruh Roh is known for building custom engines for
drag bikes,” he explains. “These bikes can cost up to
$60,000, and the engine represents about a third of
that. We machine a lot of parts from scratch, to very
exacting specs.” When you consider that these engines
occasionally blow up (a tendency that requires riders to
wear a steel chest protector), having a mechanic with
computer chops on your team suddenly seems like a
good idea.
Asked what his wife thinks about his hobby, Jeremy is
blunt. “She doesn’t like anything about me being on a
motorcycle.” Did he know about her feelings when he
married her? “She knew my feelings when she married
me,” he smiles.
While not discounting the adrenalin fi x, Jeremy says
it’s the camaraderie of the sport he most enjoys. “The
world of motorcycle drag racing is pretty small, so we
all know each other. There’s not as much money in it as
there used to be, so everyone is really in it for the love of
the sport. Teams will share parts with each other just
to make sure a race comes off. You meet a lot of tough
Harley types at the track, but they are all good folks.”
One more question. Do drag motorcycles use
parachutes to slow down, like drag racers? “Well,”
Jeremy responds, “that’s a good question, and almost
everyone asks it. Remember, you’re strapped into a
traditional drag-racing car, but you’re just sitting on the
motorcycle. So what would happen when that shoot is
opened at 180 mph?”
Hmm. It doesn’t take a computer genius to fi gure that
one out.
13

COMMUNITY
14
Resource Bank welcomes you
to our new location on Highway
38 in Malta. We continue to be
committed to this wonderful part
of our county, and we hope the new
building will bring an even higher
level of service and convenience to
our customers.
Resource got its start as the First
National Bank of Malta, which was
founded in 1901. In those days,
Th e new Resource branch in Malta
Looking back,
Looking forward
new currency was delivered by
train, and bank employees cut the
bills from large sheets with a pair
of scissors. Entries were made by
hand in giant ledgers, and no one
had thought to invent a steampowered
ATM machine.
We remained the First National
Bank of Malta until we opened our
Cortland branch in 1988 and took
the name Resource Bank to refl ect
our relationship with communities
throughout the county. So, in some
sense, we’ve come full circle in the
opening of the Malta branch, and
we think this unique building is a
fi tting marker of this milestone.
The mural on our ATM and the
landscaping surrounding the
building recall the prairie on
which our economy was built. The
limestone accents and
“The bank’s interior is
open and beautiful,
but very functional.”
–David Hagney, Architect

grain bins gracing the building are meant
to echo the functional architecture of the
surrounding farms.
At the same time, the expanded drive-through,
electronic-messaging sign system, and carefully
thought-out interior spaces acknowledge the
21 st -century need for sophisticated services and
innovative fi nancial products.
Builders, architects, and owners sometimes
speak with pride about “imposing structures.”
That thought could not have been farther
from our minds when we set about designing
the Malta branch. We strove instead for
harmony. Above all else, we wanted the new
branch to carry on the tradition of integrity
that represents the cornerstone of everything
Resource Bank stands for. To be meaningful,
this tradition has to remain unbroken. At
the same time it must be responsive to the
challenges it faces every day. We hope
our new building exemplifi es this tradition
for you, as it does for us.
Grain bins echo the architecture of surrounding farms
The lobby—
just a touch of Prairie School
COMMUNITY
15

COMMUNITY
Sally Scott is Resource Bank’s unoffi cial
new-branch hostess. She has helped
open fi ve of Resource’s seven branches
over a period of thirty years. In that
time she has seen the bank go through a
name change and a brief period when its
headquarters were temporarily housed in
a trailer, during the construction of the
fi rst Bethany building.
Sally is currently on duty at the new
Malta branch, doing what she does best—
making sure Resource clients are greeted
with a smile and ensuring that Resource
remains the place “where banking is a
pleasure.”
“We were First National Bank of Malta
for many years,” Sally recalls. “We
changed our name to Resource Bank in
January of 1988 because we wanted to
communicate that we were a resource
for the community and that we were
resourceful. That’s how the new name
came about.
“We’re proud of all our branch buildings
throughout the county. In designing
and constructing these branches, we’ve
always tried to remember that these
structures are about more than just us.
They are fi rst and foremost about the
communities we serve, and our goal has
always been to enhance the character of
those communities through our choices.
The Malta branch is very different from
our other buildings, but I think it fi ts
perfectly with a rural community.”
The mural on the ATM
pays homage to Malta’s
prairie setting.

The conference room
at the
new Malta bank
Architect David Hagney designed the main branch
on Bethany Road, as well as the Annie Glidden
Road branch, the Genoa branch, and the Sycamore
branch. When he was asked to design the new bank
in Malta, he saw a number of cultural, historical,
and aesthetic opportunities.
“At fi rst there was the thought that the site in
Malta could only accommodate an ATM, but the
more we talked, the more we realized the site would
work very well for the right building. Then we
considered the Glidden Road location as a prototype
for the Malta branch, but Richard Katz really
wanted something that refl ected the importance of
the agricultural community. He and Diana Shott
were the guiding forces behind the fi nal design.
“They envisioned a building that would refl ect
the agricultural heritage of the bank and fi t with
the rural setting. They wanted it to be markedly
different from the other buildings. At the same
time, the bank needed to offer a high level of
convenience and functionality for the Malta
customers.
“In the end, I think we came up with just the right
fi t for the community. We tried not to be too literal
in the interpretation of the agricultural themes.
The limestone accents add both warmth and
substance to the building, contrasting nicely with
the galvanized grain bins and the board-and-batten
siding. Even the landscaping has a prairie theme
that picks up on the area’s heritage.”
Hagney notes that the bank’s interior, designed by
Mike Lefferson, was a challenge, requiring a lot
from a tight space. “It’s really open and beautiful,
but very functional. Even the material for the fl oors
was chosen with the idea in mind that clients might
come directly from the fi eld or feedlot to do their
banking—and bring a little mud with them.
“When Resource says they are a community bank,
they really mean it.”
COMMUNITY

FEATURE FEA
18
18
At the end of a long day,
Russ and Kim Harrelson,
owners of Service Concepts, Inc.,
sometimes climb aboard their
Harley and go where the road
takes them. It’s a simple pleasure
that doesn’t carry them too far
from the demands of their
business—just far enough
to give them a little
perspective. Since
they inevitably wind
up back at home,
maybe these little
rides remind them
that “getting there”
is at least half
the fun. Maybe
the pitch of the
motorcycle rounding
a curve reassures
them that balance
in life, or business,
is as important as
speed. Perhaps
the hundreds of
unexplored country
roads remind them
that every path
to success and
happiness is unique.
THE NEW SERVICE CONCEPTS
FACILITY IN GENOA

RUSS
AND KIM
HARRELSON
ENJOYING THE RIDE
As husband and wife working happily together in a small
business, the two have already shown a willingness to take
the road less travelled. Conventional wisdom asserts that
working with your spouse is almost always a dead end.
But with Russ as the point man and Kim as the company
bookkeeper, the business is humming along very nicely.
Even Service Concepts’ business model, which focuses
primarily on servicing commercial heating, ventilation,
and air-conditioning equipment, follows a path that
the competition might see as too narrow. While Service
Concepts does install new equipment, the company’s
emphasis is on maintaining and repairing the equipment
its clients already own. According to Russ, concentrating
on this niche has turned out to be a good choice during
diffi cult economic times.
“The tough economy” he notes, “has actually helped
our business. Many of our clients, when faced with the
prospect of either buying new equipment or repairing what
they have, choose to go the repair route. Because our
business model isn’t dependent on equipment sales, we
can provide an objective assessment of the client’s needs.”
Of course, the Harrelsons didn’t just arrive at this successful
strategy during an afternoon ride. A bump in the road
several years ago, in the form of a business relationship that
didn’t work out, led Russ and Kim to start their own business
in January of 2004 in Hampshire. The couple admits that
the transition from employee to owner was a big step.
“Most people don’t realize the hours you put in when you
own your business,” says Kim. But those extra hours paid
off, and they outgrew their fi rst location in only a few years.
That’s when they decided to take a leap of faith and put
up their own building in Genoa.
“When we decided to make the move,” Russ explains, “we
saw our chance to own, rather than rent. I think everyone
wants that, just because you know the check you
write every month is going into something
that’s yours. In our case, the
recession provided
a number of
FEATURE 19
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FEATURE
20
20
RUSS’S
PRIDE AND JOY—
A HARLEY DRAG RACER
opportunities, and we ran with them. Lower prices for
land and construction, as well as tremendous support from
Kevin McArtor and Resource Bank, allowed us to build our
own facility. Our focus on service, rather than sales of new
equipment, was a perfect fi t for a market that was looking
to cut costs anywhere it could. “
Russ credits his success to a strong work ethic, instilled
in him by his parents, but he also acknowledges the
encouragement given to him by his father-in-law. “Kim’s
dad calmed me down and pushed me at the same time.
He was always very positive in everything he said and did,
and he gave us confi dence that we could succeed.”
Kim’s dad passed away recently, but it’s clear that she
inherited her father’s positive attitude. “Kim handles the
RUSS’S DAUGHTER MALLORY,
WHO HAS A BFA FROM NIU,
DECORATED THE SERVICE
CONCEPTS HUSKIE. HIS OTHER
DAUGHTER, COURTNEY, IS PRE-
MED AT U OF I.
bookkeeping and invoicing for the company,” says Russ,
“but her most valuable role is as a source of perspective on
the business. Kim is really the exception to the rule that you
shouldn’t work with your spouse.”
“We’re not the type of people that have to take off on
vacation every few weeks to enjoy ourselves,” says Kim.
“We both understand the sacrifi ces that you have to
make to succeed, and we both make those sacrifi ces.
Beyond that, if you have a good life at home, the good
things just follow.”
To relax, the Harrelsons take what they call “instant
vacations.” Russ explains: “When we take off for a ride on
the Harley, that’s a vacation for us, even though we end up
back at home by the end of the day.” But country roads
aren’t the couple’s only form of fun. Kim enjoys sports and
plays softball in a league in Elgin. “Sports always kept me
out trouble when I was growing up,” she smiles. “I guess
they still do.”
Russ says his sports have to involve a motor or he’s not
interested. Fast cars, fast motorcycles, and fast snowmobiles
are his hobby. His pride and joy is a Harley drag-racing
motorcycle capable of doing a quarter mile in less than 9
seconds. He lets someone else ride the bike competitively.
“I don’t race,” he confesses. “I tend to break things.” Ironic
for a guy who spends most of his time fi xing stuff.
However, Service Concepts is not just about repair
work. More and more often, Russ fi nds himself in the role
of consultant, an aspect of his business he is eager to
grow. “We have expertise not only in the heating and
air-conditioning fi eld, but also refrigeration, insulation, and
other systems that affect the size of our customers’ carbon
footprint. I might be called in to work on a client’s heating
system, but the reality is that I often see a lot of other items
that need attention. “

“Becoming ‘greener’ and saving money over the long run
are goals that usually go hand in hand,” says Russ. “I’ve
come to realize that our ability to identify problem areas
and make solid recommendations to our clients is something
that has value above and beyond our ability to simply fi x
what’s broken.”
Russ acknowledges that you can’t blame someone for
going with the lowest bid for a major equipment purchase
and installation. But how can a client know whether that
bid includes everything it should, or that the equipment is
appropriate to their needs? “I’ve told customers who were
considering replacement that all they need is a simple
repair. I’ve also had to tell clients that their system was shot
and that they need to go with something new. Either way,
I’m more than happy to give someone the information they
need. That’s just one more service we offer.”
Like Russ, the whole team at Service Concepts is geared
toward customer service. “The people who work for Service
Concepts are highly skilled, and they go above and beyond
to deliver for our clients. We wouldn’t be where we are
without them,” Russ acknowledges.
Since most of Service Concepts’ marketing is through
referral from existing customers, you can bet that his clients
are getting great value for their investment.
Russ explains, “I don’t put an ad in every phone book. I fi nd
that if we please our customers, they will pass our name
along. The pens, hats, and other doo-dads we pass out are
really little ‘thank you’ gifts for our current clients. We don’t
expect those things to really bring us new business.”
Like almost every aspect of the Harrelson’s lives, the line
between customer relations and personal relationships is
satisfyingly fuzzy. “You might as well be friends with your
customers,” Russ says. “You see them more than anyone
else.” Likewise, Russ and Kim see Genoa as more than just a
place to do business. “This town has been really supportive,
and we feel at home here,” says Kim.
“The new location is perfect for us,” Russ adds. “We have
seven employees right now, and we can handle just about
any job that comes our way. We have room to grow,
but we don’t want to grow for growth’s sake. My fi rst
responsibility is to my customers, my employees, and my
vendors—not to some personal idea I might have about
owning a bigger business. Careful growth is part of keeping
it all together.”
“Keeping it all together” is indeed a skill the Harrelsons seem
to have mastered.
“TREMENDOUS SUPPORT FROM KEVIN MCARTOR AND
RESOURCE BANK ALLOWED US TO BUILD OUR OWN FACILITY.”
– RUSS HARRELSON
FEATURE
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CRAFTSMAN
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Reconstructing the Past for the Present

For forty years, DeKalb resident Roger Keys has been
painstakingly researching and restoring historical
structures throughout the Chicago and northern
Illinois area. His portfolio includes everything from
the dwellings of billionaires to a child’s playhouse,
but all of his projects receive the same attention to
accuracy and detail.
Roger specializes in preserving the historical character
of a building while taking into account his clients’ need
for 21 st -century functionality and effi ciency. It is a
balancing act that has put him high on a short list of
specialists who can be trusted with the fi nest gems of
the region’s rich architectural tradition. Today, a short
drive in almost any direction from his loft offi ce in
downtown Chicago will take you past a home or other
building he had a hand in restoring.
By rights, though, Keys should have been a tinner—
a sheet-metal worker. His father, grandfather, and
great-grandfather were all sheet-metal men, and as
a kid who was clever and enjoyed working with his
hands, he might have been the fourth generation in the
family business. Fate, however, in the form of family
illness and a foxhole promise, intervened to take Roger
down a very different path.
While Roger was still in grade school, his father
developed a heart condition, which made it impossible
for him to continue working in his trade. Roger was
obviously too young to assume his father’s mantle,
so his father sold the business, and the line of
tinners ended.
At about the same time, Roger’s maternal uncle, Jim
Collins, was fi ghting for survival in the Battle of the
Bulge, a bloody clash that claimed the lives of 10,000
of his fellow soldiers. Praying for deliverance, he
promised that if he survived he would come home
and do something meaningful for the Catholic faith
in which
he had been raised. That’s how Jim Collins became a
painter of churches, mostly for the Chicago Catholic
Archdiocese, and how the young Roger Keys soon found
himself apprenticed to a very different trade from
the one he was born to.
Only seven years old when he started working
by his uncle’s side, the young Keys took an
early interest in history, color, and detail.
Responsible at fi rst for mixing paint and
cleaning brushes, Roger soon found himself
working alongside men whose origins
refl ected Chicago’s diverse immigrant
population. “I was really fortunate in that
I got to work with and learn from a lot of
old-world craftsmen when I went to work for
my uncle,” says Roger. “He would employ as
many as 30 men at a time, mostly Europeans
from such countries as France, Germany,
Sweden, and Italy. We thought of the work
we did as maintenance, but a lot of it was
really museum-grade restoration. Those
people were true craftsmen.”
Roger learned to do much more than swing
a brush during his years with Collins
Decorating, Inc. He was exposed to the crafts
of papering, gilding, and plastering, among
other decorative trades. Most importantly,
perhaps, he was introduced to the tradition of
competence, innovation, and resourcefulness
that characterized the best practices of the
trades, in a line that reached back for centuries.
He worked four days a week as a painter, but one
day a week he attended Chicago’s once famous but
now defunct Washburne Trade School, where he
studied not only in the hall of painters, but walked
the halls of the other trades. There he observed the
work of carpenters, plasterers, electricians, and many
other trades taught at the school. “It was a pretty
amazing place,” remembers Roger. “The various
halls were full of tradesmen working at their
crafts. It was a huge building, and you’d see one
project after another.”
Roger was being groomed to step into his uncle’s
shoes, but unfortunately, Jim died before
the torch, or rather the brush, could
be passed. Roger was
about twenty
CRAFTSMAN 23
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23

CRAFTSMAN
24
24
when his uncle
passed away—still too
young to take over the sizeable
painting company. Once again, the path
he might have followed came to an abrupt
end, but as they say, when doors close,
windows open.
Even while working with his uncle and
attending Washburne, Roger had been
commuting back and forth to DeKalb to
attend a few classes at NIU and to pick up the
occasional painting job to help pay for tuition.
When he turned twenty-one and was free to
blaze his own trail in life, he decided to strike
out and start his own painting company in the
college town west of Chicago. It was 1973.
In DeKalb, Roger married, and he and his
wife, Mary, soon had a family to support,
but Roger was nevertheless discriminating
about the work he took on. “I tried to work
whenever I could on houses that were either
on the historical register or could be.” This
penchant for historical restoration, inspired
by the years he spent working with his
uncle, led Roger to volunteer to restore the
little playhouse that now sits behind the
Elwood House on First Street. It wasn’t a
paying job, but it was a mission he could put
his heart into.
“It’s still one of my favorite projects, and
I learned a lot about the little house’s
history while I was working on it,“ Roger
remembers. “Not many people know that
it was originally constructed in 1891 as a
parade fl oat for a local shoe factory. I also
discovered that the spindles on the porch
rail were originally created by shop students.
Every spindle was unique, so I took a lot
of care to retain the character of each one
during restoration.” Roger fondly recalls
another reason the playhouse has a special
place in his heart: “My daughter, Meghan,
and my son, Matt, played in the house while I
worked on it. That was a lean year, fi nancially,
but I have a lot of good memories.”
Over time, Roger’s interest in historical
restoration began to position him as project
manager for many of the jobs he took on. “I started
out as a painter, but a lot of the work I did required me
to take architectural elements apart and reassemble
them, or to entirely reconstruct something that had
been destroyed or neglected beyond repair. I couldn’t
always fi nd a carpenter who was willing or able to
deal with saving old construction when it was just
easier to build something new. So I learned a lot about
carpentry. Once you start doing that kind of work, you
just naturally start to understand the larger picture. ”
A natural detective when it comes to fi guring out how a
building had been constructed, even a century or more
ago, Roger became a resource for the other tradesmen
he worked with. “I do a lot of research when I take on
a historically sensitive project. Kind of by default, I
became the guy the plumber or the electrician or the
carpenter would come to when they had a question
about the most appropriate way to do something.”
While Roger manages a good number of the projects
he is involved in, he is quick to acknowledge that
historical restoration is a collaborative enterprise
and that he is often one among many specialists
working on a job. “Whether RW Keys and Son is called
in as consultant, general contractor, or a specialist
in painting and window restoration, we’re always
learning something from the other people on the job.
For example, we’ve worked closely on a number of
jobs with Bill Schermerhorn. Bill owns Ornamental
Plaster in Rochelle, and he helped us restore capitals
on some of the columns in the old Carson, Pirie, Scott
building, which was designed by Louis Sullivan. Some
of the capitals had to be reconstructed and reinstalled,
and we discovered that the techniques they used in
1899 are just as workable today.”
RW Keys and Son? “That’s right,” Rogers says,
smiling. “Matt went to work with me about fi fteen
years ago, and he’s earned his place in the company.”

Matt’s skills include welding and a special knack for
design and mechanical challenges (he rebuilt Resource
Bank’s circular “conference bike,” a bicycle built for 7
that came to him mostly in well-used parts from
Maryland). But his greatest talent may be his ability
to fi gure out how something was put together, take it
apart, restore it, and put it back together again.
“I see a lot of interesting things on the job. Usually,
if something hasn’t been tinkered with, or if a repair
was done right by the last guy, I can bring it back to
its original condition. But I see things that were done
poorly all the time. Sometimes you just laugh.” Matt
says that’s always in the back of his mind when he’s
working on a project. “A lot of the work we do when we’re
working on a historical restoration is invisible.
If somebody does have to do maintenance on one of our
projects, fi fty or a hundred years from now, I don’t
want anybody laughing at me.”
Together, the Keys have been able to take on some
very impressive projects, including, most recently, the
restoration of a townhouse on Astor Street in the Gold
Coast District of Chicago that won them the City of
Chicago 2010 Preservation Award. A fi ve-story artnouveau
beauty put up in 1929, the home was built for
real estate banker Edward P. Russell and was designed
by Holabird & Root, a fi rm best known for building a
number of Chicago’s early skyscrapers.
The home had suffered 60 years of neglect by 1989,
when it was bought by Gregory and Randa Dumanian.
Fortunately the couple had the passion and vision to
bring the house back to its original condition. RW Keys
and Son was brought in as the general contractor on the
job, and along with their team, Roger and Matt returned
this amazing private residence to its original splendor.
“It’s really like a little skyscraper,” says Roger. “Holabird
& Root actually pioneered some building techniques when
they built this house, and The Peoples Gas Light and
Coke Company hailed it as an enlightened example of
modern architecture. It’s unique as a personal residence in
Chicago.”
RW Keys and Son was featured in the June
issue of Old House Journal for their work on
the Astor Street Home.
BOTTOM PHOTO
Roger points out a detail in the
repair of the 18-ton
bay window.
CRAFTSMAN 25
25

CRAFTSMAN
26
26
Crucial to the restoration
were the repair and repositioning
of a three-story cast-iron bay window, the
replacing of broken stone on the home’s façade,
and the reglazing and lighting of the skylight in the
building’s central rotunda.
After decades without maintenance, the bay window,
which weighs 18 tons, had begun to come away from the
front of the building. The window had to be meticulously
jacked back into place, a fraction of an inch at a time. “We had
to move the window very slowly or risk cracking the cast iron,”
Roger explains. “Once we got it back into place, though, we
were able to slip new stainless bolts into the original holes.”
Repairing the white limestone face of the building called
on all of Roger’s research skills. Over the years, the stone
had been patched with limestone of a slightly different
color, detracting from the structure’s signature vertical
consistency. Restoring the original appearance required
that he match the stone exactly. Paint wasn’t an option,
and no one was even sure where the original stone had
come from.
It took Roger eight months to run down the quarry in
Lens, France, where the original stone had been cut,
but the results were worth the effort. Only an expert,
perhaps only Roger himself, can now tell the new stone
from the old.
Matt took charge of the skylight in the rotunda.
Situated above a marble fl oor between the family’s
dining area and living room, the skylight is the heart
of the building’s interior. The builders had deviated
from the glass pattern in the original architectural
drawings, and the Dumanians liked the original design
better, so Matt went to work creating the framework
for new stained glass. He also came up with an
ingenious design for lighting the glass dome that
would serve to illuminate the space below the skylight
at night. Using LEDs, he was able to eliminate the
shadows that would have been cast by conventional
fi xtures. The result is pure art deco, but the light is
functional and warm—a testament to the Keys’ ability
to bring the new to the old.
The Dumanians clearly appreciate the work done by
Roger and Matt. In a letter recommending Roger for
the prestigious Richard Driehaus Foundation 2010
Preservation Award, Gregory Dumanian wrote: “What [RW
Keys and Son] did was nothing short of perfection.”
For Roger and Matt Keys, it doesn’t matter
whether the job is a classic of Chicago
architecture or the spindle on the porch railing
of a child’s playhouse—nothing less than
perfection will do.
Matt says working on the
Astor Street home was a privilege.
“It’s not every day you get to work on a
house like this, or that you find
an owner committed to
expending the resources to
do the job right.”
Asked by his mom, Mary, what the
hardest part of the job was, Matt smiles
and says, “working with Dad.”
The best part? He smiles again.
“Working with Dad.”

Winter Calendar
Tuesday Mornings
TWISTED STITCHERS
Hinckley Library
10–noon. New friends are always welcome.
Work on your own knit or crochet projects or
help with scarves for Heart Sisters, a support
group for women who have had a heart
attack. For more information about the
Twisted Stitchers or about making scarves,
contact the library at 815-286-3220 or stop by.
Winter
SKATING RINK
North Genoa Street, Genoa
Ice skating rink open! Free skating when fl ags
are fl ying.
December 17
FRIDAY FAMILY READING NIGHT
& CRAFTS FRIDAY
Malta Library
6:00–8:00 p.m. December’s family reading
night event will be two hours of holiday
crafting. Please remember Friday Family
Reading Nights are meant to encourage family
time, so we need parents to accompany their
children for the evening. There will be a story,
crafts, juice and Christmas cookies
December 18
MADRIGAL DINNERS
NIU - Altgeld Hall
6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. DeKalb High School,
Huntley Middle School, and Clinton Rosette
Middle School.
December 17-18
COOKIES WITH SANTA
Sycamore Golf Course Clubhouse
The Sycamore Park District welcomes Santa!
Participants will receive complimentary hot
chocolate, a goodie bag, and a picture with
Santa. We will also have a craft table set up
for children to create their very own Christmas
keepsake. The event is FREE to all; however,
we encourage participants to bring a donation
of a non-perishable food item for the Sycamore
Food Pantry or an unwrapped toy, which will
be donated to the DeKalb Toys for Tots.
Friday: 3:30–7p.m., Saturday: 9 a.m.–noon
December 31
NEW YEAR’S EVE CELEBRATION
Malta Historical Society
6:00–8:00 p.m. We will count down to the new
year via television around the world so little
ones can go home. New-release movie
for those who can stay up later.
December 31
NEW YEAR’S EVE COMEDY SHOW
Egyptian Theatre
Two great events in one night to celebrate the
new year! Laugh, lounge, and dance in the
New Year!
Thru December 31
TREE FESTIVAL
Midwest Museum of Natural History
Free with museum admission. Holiday crafts,
tree display decorated by local groups and
businesses. Giving Tree decorated with paper
ornaments representing gifts for our live
animals. Your donation is welcome.
December 31–January 1
NEW YEAR TRIP TO PEORIA
Resource Classics
Resource Classics will ring in the New Year with
a fun-fi lled trip to Peoria. (“If it plays in Peoria,
it’ll play anywhere...”) Enjoy the action at
Par-A-Dice Casino. Delight at the Spirit of Peoria
Paddleboat with a Holiday Show and dinner.
Relax in our hospitality suite as we ring in the
New Year. For more information call 815-756-
6321, or go to www.ResourceClassics.com
January 7 & 8
Thoroughly Modern Millie Jr.
Location not provided
7:30 p.m. A high-spirited musical romp.
January 19
CLASSICS 16 TH ANNUAL SOUP SAMPLING
Resource Bank, Bethany branch
Classics members bring their favorite soup to
share or a few sandwiches to accompany the
feast. Learn more about how to protect
yourself during a presentation from a Rockford
FBI member on Identity Theft and Fraud.
Frauds are ever changing, so come to hear the
latest information
January 24–29
QUILT AND NEEDLE ARTS WALK
Downtown Genoa
9:00 a.m. Enjoy guest speakers, demonstrations
and workshops throughout the downtown
area. Saturday is kids’ day. For information
call Genoa Main Street, Inc., 815-784-6961.
January 29
GROUNDHOG GALA & SILENT AUCTION
Midwest Museum of Natural History
6:00– 9:00 p.m. The third annual fundraiser!
Enjoy a fabulous evening fi lled with entertainment,
exhibitors and delicious treats from
around the world! www.mmnh.org
January 30
SWING ON A STAR
Classics members will enjoy a relaxing coach
trip to the Fireside Theatre and enjoy this
wildly popular Sunday musical matinee,
complete with the famous Fireside buffet.
For information call 815-756-6321.
February 4
THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW
Egyptian Theatre
8:00 p.m. An outrageous assemblage of the most
stereotyped science fi ction movies, Marvel
Comics, Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello
outings and rock ‘n’ roll of every
vintage.
February 5
CHOCOLATE WALK
Downtown Genoa
Free samples of a variety of chocolate goodies
throughout downtown. A yummy experience
for all!
January 12 & 13
THE NORTHERN ILLINOIS FARM SHOW
NIU Convocation Center
Created to provide a forum for farmers to gather
and share information on the vast amount of
products and services available
to manage a successful farm operation and
will host over 380 exhibits with morethan
220 companies.
February 13
THE LEGACY GIRLS PERFORM LIVE
Resource Bank, Bethany branch
Legacy Girls formed their group in 2007, as
singers in a church choir. After they were told,
“You girls sound like the Andrews Sisters,” they
had the idea to do just that. Event includes
Sunday brunch. Tickets are limited. Classics
members! For information call 815-756-6321
February 18
GAELIC STORM
Egyptian Theatre
Gaelic Storm is a “whirlwind ruckus” (Village
Voice) who tour worldwide. The band interlaces
high energy, foot-stomping performances of
original interpretations of Celtic classics and
well-crafted originals.
February 24
CLASSICS LADIES NIGHT OUT
Resource Bank, Bethany branch
An evening of pampering and relaxation awaits
you complete with a fashion show, hors d’oeuvres,
wine and delicious dessert buffet. From
5:00–8:00 p.m. you will learn how to accessorize,
take an outfi t from day to evening, and keep your
skin looking its best. Prizes, gifts and plenty of
fun. Don’t miss this!
▀ DeKalb
▀ Genoa
▀ Hinkley
▀ Sycamore
▀ Malta
▀ Classics
EVENTS
27
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28
555 Bethany Road
DeKalb, IL 60115
“For memory has painted this perfect day
With colors that never fade”
–Carrie Jacobs Bond
PRSRT STD
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PAID
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AURORA IL