Inside Geneva: Joe Stanton Is One of Geneva's Gems

When I started this Geneva Patch gig more than a year ago, I met and interviewed a number of community leaders, and I ended most of them with the question every reporter is supposed to ask:

Is there anyone else you think I should talk to or might have missed?

At least a half dozen times—probably more—the first answer was: "Have you met Joe Stanton?"

That's because, as a landlord, business owner, volunteer, community activist, graphic designer, consultant, sponsor, philanthropist, client, Geneva cheerleader or friend, he has touched the lives of countless people who live and work here. Joe is—or was until Tuesday night—simultaneously one of the city's most notable and influential people and one the community's best-kept secrets.

One of the reasons for that is that Joe himself never seeks the limelight. When he won the —Geneva's highest honor for lifetime achievement—at Tuesday night's Chamber of Commerce dinner at , everyone who knows him well also knew that he would be uncomfortable receiving that kind of attention and sincere affection.

"I find it difficult to find myself in that company," he told Susan Sarkauskus of the Daily Herald after being presented the award from Chamber of Commerce board chairman .

The Wood Award recipients are a Who's Who of Geneva history and community involvement, and Joe fits in with that crowd just fine. You can see some of the former Wood Award winners in the photos presented here by Joe's friend and former business partner, 3rd Ward Alderman Dawn Vogelsberg.

Before Geneva Patch launched, I took the advice mentioned earlier and met with Joe at his Fagans office, above the . I intervieiwed him there for a profile story that was to be part of a multipart Geneva Patch series. I interviewed Joe, Mayor Kevin Burns and Geneva High School Principal Tom Rogers and had photos, video and detailed notes that I think would have made a great starting point for a splendid series.

To make a long story short, my hard drive crashed before I could complete the work—and I lost all of it. Photos, videos, Word documents laboriously typed from recorded interviews. Still makes me want to cry.

I had the privilege at Tuesday night's awards dinner of sitting between and Steve Lillie—two Wood Award recipients—and we were marveling at the memories of folks like Weldon Johnson (another Wood Award winner, also at our table) and former Geneva School Superintendent Dr. John Murphy. I don't have a memory like that, but let me share some of what I do recall from my interview of Joe more than a year ago. Please forgive me if some of this is fuzzy or off the mark.

Joe's curriculum vitae reads like a Horatio Alger story. He grew up as one of a bunch of brothers—I think six or seven, in all. There are several photos in Joe's office of the boys together, and I remember that I was hoping to use those to illustrate that their bond was very strong, still is, and that growing up in that environment probably didn't hurt his business acumen or drive.

I remember that he partnered with a few of his brothers in business ventures and that they ultimately and amicably parted ways to pursue their passions. I think one brother wanted to move or do business elsewhere, and Joe wanted to stay in Geneva.

As I have it in my head, Joe didn't graduate from college but was an entrepreneur even from an early age, working I believe as a mechanic and starting businesses when he was just a teenager.

One of those, believe it or not, was a hair salon. I want to say it was in Lombard, but it could have been Elmhurst or Villa Park. Joe either bought or helped create the business, innately understood how to market it, where to locate it, what the name should be, where the signs should be placed, what color schemes to use. It was a rollicking success story, allowing him to sell the business for a handsome profit and move on to the next.

After 1,001 youthful adventures and business ventures, he found his way to Geneva. He opened the Mining Company with one of his brothers and eventually came to invest in and own properties in Geneva.

I would say that today he qualifies as one of Geneva's "Big 3" downtown property owners—Joe, Mike Simon and Kent Shodeen. Until last night, I bet a lot of Genevans could name Mike and Kent, but maybe not Joe.

To name all the businesses he has owned or operated in his lifetime would be like running your fingers through the Yellow Pages. He has a keen business mind, an astute eye for detail, tremendous creativity and a long track record of successes (and a few failures.)

He loves the art of the deal, and there are few good works or development projects in Geneva that haven't borne Joe's fingerprints at some place or at some time.

Joe is the guy who built those "new" buildings on State Street that expanded Geneva's downtown and preserved much of its architectural flavor. He's the person who came up with an innovative idea to redevelop the so that it might retain both the post office presence and add business uses. (That didn't come to fruition, but the plan was clever, very close to ingenious, and shows how much he cares about creating a win-win.)

Along with Dawn, and long before Geneva Patch, he created the somewhat groundbreaking e-Geneva magazine, which combined a website, e-mail database and print product that sold advertising and told a lot of wonderful stories about the people and happenings in Geneva.

Joe's the force behind the Geneva Theater marquee that informs folks about what's going on in Geneva. He does this for free. And he bears the difficult burden of having to choose which good works to display. That's space I'm guessing could have been sold as advertising, but it's an example of how passionately he wants the community to succeed as a whole.

He is passionate about this community, he told me in the interview, because he knows that when Geneva succeeds, he and his businesses will succeed.

He hosts the —which is a wonderful addition to this community—not because it's a big money maker (at this time) but because he believes theater benefits Geneva and brings people downtown.

He's on the Board and helps plan the annual . He's always thinking and always a problem solver. A small example of that is the seating arrangement he came up with for the Eagle Brook Country Club venue, so that more folks can see the incredibly popular  performance.

One of the things I love about Joe is that he practices what he preaches. This came out in the interview, and he's repeated it since. On a Friday or Saturday night, he won't take a car, he'll take a walking, sampling tour of downtown Geneva. One place for an appetiser and drinks, another for dinner, a third for dessert and coffee and maybe yet another for entertainment or conversation.

"And you should come with me sometime," he says, "if only to see the hundreds and hundreds of people who are enjoying the downtown and all the things there are to do here."

I sat down with Joe and Jeff Ward a week or so ago at in the wake of Jeff's column that predicted the as we know it. That might seem like an unuaul threesome for a coffee klatch, I know, but I learned a few things in our brief conversation.

In some ways, Joe and Jeff are as opposite as two Genevans can be. Joe is the quiet mover and shaker who never wants to step into the spotlight, who creates his magic behind the curtain, who is an eternal optimist and does not like to speak or hear anything about Geneva that isn't goodness and light. I think it's fair to say that Jeff enjoys the spotlight, loves a lively debate and believes the right place for a community's hardest issues is out in the open, for all to see.

The odd thing is, in some ways, they're also two sides of the same coin. I'm confident Jeff's critics will castigate me for saying so, but both he and Joe  and want it to survive and flourish. Jeff tries to save it by pointing out what needs fixing, calling out the names of people in authority and shouting from the rooftops for people to pay attention and take action. Joe tries to save it by bringing people together, spreading good cheer and investing his time and talents and treasure.

In Jeff's column, he pointed to downtown vacancies and said two landlords weren't flexible enough in negotiating their rents. After the column was published and before we met with Joe, I heard evidence and testimony that was not the case, so I edited the column. We had coffee to clear the air and to introduce these two so that, hopefully, they feel comfortable picking up the phone and talking.

To Joe's great credit, and in typical Joe fashion, he didn't ask for a pound of flesh and he didn't want the conversation to be about him. He wanted Jeff and me to understand all the reasons his beloved downtown Geneva is flourishing, in spite of the hard times of the recession, and hoped Geneva Patch would do more to tell that side of the story.

I don't claim to know Joe well, and I'm not savvy enough or close enough to the Geneva's inner circles to speak with any authority about his business affairs. I'm sure he can be tough when he needs to be, that like anyone in business or the public eye, he has a detractor or two, and he's told me as much. I'm not trying to paint him as perfect.

But I can tell you from the evidence above and my personal observation that he is a good man, a Geneva treasure and a perfect choice to receive the 2011 William Wood Award.

He works tirelessly for community organizations like the Paul Ruby Foundation, donates his time and talent to find solutions to problems—often at no fee, in spite of the fact that he does consulting for a living.