Edward Bartunek:  

After graduation from West I immediately started at Morton College that summer and continued there getting my Associates in Elementary School Education. After graduation I realized that being a teacher was not what I really wanted to do, so I headed to Control Data Corporation for computer education. Before the completion of my classes I was hired by Procter & Gamble as their swing-shift computer operator. For the next 25 years I worked my way up to being the System Administrator/PC software-hardware support person in the Systems Core Team. At the same time I went into a partnership with a close friend and purchased Harlem Ave Lounge in Berwyn. Worked there 20 years, building it from a dead business to a very successful business. Retired from P&G when they consolidated all the regional centers to Cincinnati, Ohio, their corporate HQ, my final assignment was moving the active Midwest Customer Service Center office to the Ohio area with no business interruption. It had to be a smooth, efficent corporate move. Worked for a couple of years doing network and hardware/software support as a consultant. Consultant work was not for me, I didn't like upgrading systems and create networks that linked more than one location because it usually ended with many people losing their jobs. I retired from the IT madhouse for a couple of months and quickly became bored. Money was not a concern so I became a mountain bike advocate and a forest preserve advocate. Became Executive Director of the Chicago Area Mountain Bikers (CAMBr) and the International Mountain Bicycling Associations Illinois representative. Attended international summits in Moab, UT, Washington DC, Whistler BC, promoting mountain biking in northeast Illinois and sharing my knowledge of advocacy and trail building/repair with others. My experience working with the land managers at the Forest Preserve District of Cook County made it easy for me to give presentations on dealing with 'percieved' difficult land managers and actual difficult land managers. Attained the rank of Master Steward with the district, specializing in trails. Did restoration work (removing invasive species) at various locations, especially focused at Ted Stone Forest, Bemis Woods, Cap Sauer's, Hidden Ponds, Spears Woods and the Chicago Portage (Lyons). Some of these restoration/conservation and mountain bike advocacy talents carried over to my various special events work in Wisconsin with Team Sports Events in Milwaukee/Wauwatosa. With TSE I helped manage road races, 24 hour mountain bike races in the Summer and 24 hour cross country ski races in the Winter, and the Badger State Games in Madison. The opportunity of working on trails [not clout] led me to work for the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and I jumped at it. Worked for Resource Management-Trails for a couple of years until the ugly head of Crook County politics hit me. Administration came in and reassigned me to a much less desirable position. The reason, a clean record, no absenses, willing to take on difficult assignments, responsible, dedicated, everything a model honest employee should be ... and sent to the new Nature Center to keep it clean and running smoothly, in other words, be the janitor. Trails fought to get me back, but it was of no use. As they say, don't poke the bear. Both myself and my old boss kept trying. I gave them two years to correct the problem, not doing so I packed up my trail tools, knowledge an...Expand for more