It was a beautiful September day and Dale Berman came to the Cole Center in Aurora for his Fox Valley Park District book interview. What a complete delight!
Dale Berman was born January 3, 1934. He served in the U.S. Army, 1954-1956, in South Carolina with anti-aircraft artillery on the Savanah River Project with radar surveillance. “However, the Russians never came into our airspace, but we were ready,” he began with that twinkle in his blue Norwegian eyes.
He told me he played varsity football at Northern Illinois and was all-conference (Interstate Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in 1958 and 1959, was team Most Valuable Player Award recipient in 1958 and team captain in 1959 and played tackle. He was selected on the Northern Illinois all-century honor team, 1900-1999.
He recalled being part of the high school all star football game as a representative of Ottawa High School in 1951 when the athletes stayed at Bradley University.
“They gave us a tour of Pabst Brewery in Peoria Heights and a tour of Hiram Walker in Peoria. I was on the North team. No, we did not win,” he said with a laugh and shook his head.
Dale played semi-pro football for five years with both the Aurora Clippers in the early 1950s and with the Elmhurst Travelers in the early 1960s. “It was fun football,” he recalled. He later was inducted into the semi-pro section of the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
Adaptability is Dale’s middle name. His mother, Beth, died when he was eight years old. “My father, August, was under a two-year contract in the Persian Gulf so my brother and I were sent to a Presbyterian orphanage until our father returned. I attended six different grade schools and one was a one-room school,” he said. His father remarried and he loved his new step-mom, Wilma.
Dale worked through the years with IBM, Xerox, and in data processing. His bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois was in business management. He was graduated from Ottawa Township High School.He and Mary were wed August 16, 1958 and recently celebrated 63 years together. They raised four daughters and now enjoy their eight grandchildren.Dale served on the Fox Valley Park District Board, 1990-2001, and was voted president for two years.
“This was a dynamic time of building, executive directors Chuck Holscheit and then Bob Vaughan were the leaders at that time and it seemed that we were opening a new park every week. Those were busy years and I was a part of it. It was very enjoyable,” he said.
Dale served as North Aurora Village president for four terms, served: As a commissioner with the North Aurora Police, on the North Aurora Planning Commission, on the Mercy Foundation Board, on the Waubonsee Community College Foundation Board, on the Aurora Area Convention and Visitors Bureau; and on the Kane County Forest Preserve Board. He ran for mayor in because he wanted, “a better way of getting things done,” he said.
Dale’s record of leadership is undeniable and impressive. Even though he has had 11 operations on his knees, shoulders, hips, he maintains a positive mental attitude that sparkles. His life portmanteau has carried only of the best of intentions, effort, and results.