By John Montesano –
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club has named Bob Mead the August Veteran of the Month.
Charles Robert Mead was born April 30, 1940 and was raised in Oswego. At age eight, the family purchased a home in Oswego, the same house that Bob owns and lives in today. He went to Oswego grade school. Grades 1-3 were in The Little White School, which is now a museum. After he was graduated from Oswego High School in 1960, he went to work doing maintenance with his dad until he was drafted into the Army in 1963.
In 1955 Bob got involved with cars. While working for a grocery store in high school, he was asked to sell popcorn at the newly-opened Oswego Speedway. Once exposed to the car racing scene, Bob was hooked. He would hang out at the track and help out the drivers and crew whenever he could, to get his foot in the door. However, just when he was going to start his racing career, he was drafted into the U.S. Army.
Bob was trained as a radio relay carrier (radio operator). In November 1963, his training was interrupted when president John Kennedy was assassinated. On the day of the funeral, the entire base was on the parade grounds in formation, out of respect for Kennedy, at Fort Benning, Ga.. He stayed there for his entire service time. During that time, his unit occasionally would be on bivouac near Pageland, S.C. and would set up radio communications in the field during various operations. During the marches and civil disturbances in Selma, Ala. in 1965, Bob was sent to set up radio communications between Selma and Fort Benning. For the last three months of Bob’s service, he was involved in setting up communications for the 11th Air Assault division that was conducting maneuvers to prepare for combat in Vietnam.
Bob was honorably discharged in July 1965 and returned to Oswego to the same house in which he grew up. Two days after returning home, he went to work at Harry Hill Decorating, as a commercial painter. He worked there for 30 years when he took over the business and renamed it Bob Mead Decorating.
Soon after returning home from the Army, Bob got his first race car and began racing professionally until 1979 when he became a pit steward working at several tracks in a three-state area. A pit steward directs the activities at the race track: Organizing the pit area, running the time trials, and keeping the races moving along. Bob’s last time as a pit steward was in 2010. September 4, 2010, he was voted into the Mazon-Morris Speed Bowl Hall of Fame and the Mazon Speed Bowl and Grundy County Speedway Hall of Fame.
In 1992, Bob and Judy were married. Judy had two children from a previous marriage who were adults when Bob and Judy were married. They have four grandchildren.
Bob still does painting jobs for old customers and friends and is still involved with several cruise nights in the Oswego area. He is an active member of the Roosevelt-Aurora American Legion Post 84, Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club, and a volunteer for VetsRoll.