A Conversation on the Porch

John Kalec

This past summer I was sitting on our porch in Maine with our daughter Katherine and we were planning my Mom’s 95th birthday party in Braidwood. I always have found that the best conversations seem to always take place on the porch and I remembered back to my grandmother’s house which was right next door to us in Braidwood. 

On the weekends my aunts and uncles would gather on and near the porch and have conversations for hours. As most of the discussions were in Polish, I wasn’t sure what stories were being told, unless a random comment  in English would be directed towards me. I am not sure what prompted my next conversation with my daughter, but it was related to role models in my life, my career, and how it had developed.

Influential People

To describe the importance that my parents played in my life, I could go on for hours. Even today, my Mom provides important advice, guidance, and love in support of her grandchildren and  great-grandchildren. Thinking back to my elementary school days, I recall two most important people that influenced my life. 

The first was my Uncle Rich Ryszewski, my Mom’s younger brother. Uncle Rich was a math professor in Chicago, having graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree in mathematics. He had been chosen to receive one of the President’s Math and Science Scholarships in 1960 when the country recognized it needed to formulate a plan to compete with the USSR, since they had just launched into space the Sputnik rocket. My uncle was a very kind and extremely knowledgeable person that would dazzle us with his math trivia well into his 80s. 

In addition to Uncle Rich, my 8th grade teacher and basketball coach, Mr. Lewis Uhrich, was someone that had quite an influence on my life. I remember to this day, in the 7th grade Mr. Uhrich tapped me on the shoulder while I was leaning over the water fountain, and reminded me that basketball tryouts were that afternoon, and how he was looking forward to seeing me in the gym. Of course in Braidwood, particularly in 1938 and 1963, basketball was everything. Simply put, throughout high school I was convinced I wanted to be a math teacher and basketball coach when I grew up. 

Selecting a College

Then as it became time to decide on college, I started to look at options. Most of my research led me to schools located within Illinois, even though my Dad felt I should perhaps look outside of the state. At a college recruiting night at the Reed Custer gymnasium, a person from Lewis College was amongst several colleges and universities representing their respective schools in the recruitment process. I remember their pitch included mentioning former Braidwood young men who were at Lewis or had graduated from Lewis. They mentioned Bob McElroy and Tom Kennedy. Of course I knew Bob and my parents were good friends with Tom and his family for many years. At the end of the day, I felt  that a sample size of two more than supported my choice of Lewis.

The Draft Lottery

So I enrolled at Lewis and my freshman year joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Theta. As the Vietnam War was a part of everyone’s life in some shape or form, I continued on the path of pursuing a Math and Education degree, one reason being that teachers once they graduated were given a deferment from the draft. Then as I was in my sophomore year, the country introduced the birthday lottery……the first birthdays chosen would be the first group to be sent to Vietnam. I remember vividly the evening of the lottery. I had just finished playing in an intramural basketball game, Phi Kappa Theta against TKE. Intramurals were a big part of the Lewis scene, and the commissioner of the league was Tom Kennedy who was on the faculty at Lewis. 

After the game we all went back to our dorm rooms and watched the draft lottery on television. I missed my number being called that evening  and didn’t find out until the next morning’s Chicago Tribune listing of my birthday as #322!  There was no chance that I would be drafted. Another important milestone….I switched my major to Business Administration and  eventually a Master’s Degree in Accounting at DePaul.

First Job

In 1973, at the age of 22, I interviewed for a job in Chicago in Internal Audit with the Dutch company Philips. At the time Philips was one of the 20 largest companies in the world and headquartered in the Netherlands. The CFO of the Chicago division was of Polish ancestry and it is possible that had something to do with him making me an offer. He asked me where I was from and I told him a little town south of Chicago that he likely had not heard of. I told him Braidwood and he said immediately that he knew where it was. 

He said he had graduated from the University of Illinois in Champaign and would travel home maybe once a month and would pass through not only Braidwood, but also Godley. He told me with a twinkle in his eye that of course everyone had heard of Godley! So it is also possible that my career was launched in part due to the close proximity Braidwood had to this small village of 100 people located on old US 66.

For the next 23 years my career at Philips took me literally all over the world, but none of the stops were more important than the second assignment at Norelco in Connecticut. That is where I met my wife Karen and we have been married now for almost 44 years. Our Philips journey took us to the Netherlands, twelve different homes, with the longest time being in Knoxville, Tennessee. 

However, one of the most important constants in our lives has been my parents and the visits we would make back home. All of the grandchildren and great grandchildren look forward to our annual summer gathering in our backyard in Braidwood and the festivities centered around family.

My Father’s Silent Regret

The professional network of colleagues developed in Philips led to the second half of my career with Clayton Homes, a Berkshire Hathaway company. As my parents grew older, I was able to join the board at Lewis and be able to visit Braidwood regularly 4-5 times a year for board meetings and spend time with Mom and Dad. After my Dad’s 80th birthday he talked about how fast life had gone, but the first twenty, not at all as fast as the last sixty. 

He talked about his father passing away one month before he was born and the lifetime struggle with his speech. He felt that he was unable to send me to a school like Harvard and be able to provide more for his family. I told him how he should not feel that way at all, and how I could not have had a better childhood and a better college experience than Lewis. And then another ten years passed until my Dad’s 90th birthday.

Again we had a large family gathering in Braidwood complete with a wiffle ball field modelled after the Field of Dreams. After his birthday I stayed for a couple more days and listened to him reminisce about what growing up in Braidwood was like. It led to his quote about Braidwood, “It was like one big family, with everyone always helping one another.” The quote is part of the memorial plaque at the Braidwood Area Historical Society. 

Three weeks after his 90th birthday my Dad passed away. We had a small private ceremony and we were so fortunate that Tom Kennedy happened to be back in Braidwood that week. He stopped over at the house that evening and it meant a lot to my Mom.

Dad Would be Proud

In 2016 I retired and decided that I wanted to take a few courses at Harvard. Spending our summers in Maine was perfect as I was able to take the train into Boston and easily attend classes. I wanted to do something totally different from my career which had been all related to finance and accounting. Over a couple of summers I studied about the cultures and economies of Ukraine, Russia, and China. And one summer I was able to help the Russian professor design one of his case studies, based on my experiences with Philips. 

I did not choose Harvard for any particular reason other than it was close by and offered courses that I found interesting. But when my daughter explained that Grandpa would be really proud of my Harvard experience, I became quite emotional. Sometimes you never know when and where an emotion is hidden, often-times just below the surface……and I probably now know the real reason I took those courses.