Hundreds remember Jack Shales with tears, laughter and his own words

Philanthropist and omnipresent fundraiser Jack Shales of Elgin was remembered this week as "a guy who would reach into his pocket to be the change he wanted," a Marine who learned never to retreat, a model of Christian life - and perhaps the most famous and widely beloved resident of the city.

Shales, co-owner of Shales McNutt Construction, died Jan. 26 at the age of 87. He was remembered Thursday in a memorial service attended by 200 family members and friends at Cornerstone United Methodist Church in Plato Center, and again on Saturday morning in a public service attended by 450 people at Judson University.

"My dad often quoted a Winston Churchill saying that 'we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give,'" his son Mike said.

Some of the biggest crowd reaction was generated by words from Jack Shales himself. The services included a 20-minute video that paired family photos with part of an hourlong "StoryCorps" oral history talk that Shales and his wife, Marlene, recorded in 2010 at Gail Borden Public Library.

Jack recalled how after returning from the Korean War he married his Elgin High School sweetheart and went to work for Melvin "Pete" Rakow at Illinois Hydraulic Construction Co.

One day Rakow invited him to organize a United Way pledge campaign among that company's employees. Besides donating major portions of their own income, Jack and Marlene ended up working on United Way campaigns for 63 more years. They also helped raise millions for Elgin nonprofits including not only Gail Borden, Cornerstone and Judson but also the Community Crisis Center, the YMCA and its Camp Edwards, the YWCA, the Elgin Symphony, Jayne Shover Easter Seals Center, the Boys and Girls Club, and others.

"In 1962, Marlene and I sat down and decided we were going to give back financially. And it never hurt us," Jack Shales said. But speaking frankly, he also told how he was a lousy high school student, split with his first business partner and failed to recognize that his sister was about to kill herself.

Eulogies were delivered by his four children - son John speaking from a Christian perspective, Mike with comical overtones based on the theme "do you remember ... ," daughter Kris Durham from a family viewpoint and daughter Heidi Baudry through tears.

Quoting Jesus' commandment to "love your neighbor as you love yourself," John said everyone should look at how they spend their money, time and talents, and "see if someone could convict you of loving others based on that evidence."

"The only time he ever lost his temper was when a Realtor stopped by the office and started bad-mouthing the city of Elgin and School District U-46," Mike Shales said. "(Jack) said that 'the only thing stupid and incompetent around here is you' and pushed that Realtor out the door."

Durham recalled how her father would go to meetings almost every night but first would always eat dinner with the family precisely at 6 p.m. She recalled her parents dressing as clowns for the ice cream socials at Washington Elementary School, which she "thought was cool when I was little" but "as I got older was very embarrassing."

"He always had this bigger-than-life persona that I thought could never be extinguished," Durham said.

"He devoted himself to lifting others up with his money and his laughter and his actions," said Baudry.

At the Thursday service, Cornerstone Pastor Jim Bell challenged anyone to remember a time when Shales called himself "a self-made man," even though he grew up in a poor working-class family on Elgin's Slop Hill and ended up heading one of the biggest construction firms in Kane County.

"Jack always gave God the credit," Bell said. "It is our shame as a community that there aren't more of us who are like Jack Shales."

Delivering the sermon Saturday was Baptist pastor Randy Gauger, who is married to Marlene Shales' sister and served with Jack on the Judson University board.

"There are some people who speak sermons. There are others whose life is a sermon," Gauger said. "Those of us who follow Christ never say goodbye for the last time."

During the Thursday service Jack's grandson John Franklin Shales, who also goes by the nickname "Jack," sang a folk song he had written about Jack and Marlene's life. Titled "Forward," the song ends with:

"Then the winter came and he grew weary in his bed but

As long as people think of you, you're never really dead.

Look to the light you rise toward,

Lift up your arms and go forward."