Wheaton couple who founded 'Habitat' hope to inspire others

Alan Hollenbeck, president and CEO of RJN Group in Wheaton, describes his former boss, Dick Nogaj, as a classic Type A personality.

Innovative and exciting to work for, Nogaj (pronounced no-jay) also was demanding, challenging and incredibly focused on building the engineering firm he founded, Hollenbeck said.

That is, until the Wheaton resident decided to retire and change the world.

Nogaj and his wife, Florence, founded Habitat for Humanity in DuPage County amid fundraising challenges and "not in my backyard" opposition.

Defying what others told them couldn't be done, they moved on to build a subdivision of 89 affordable homes in Immokalee, an impoverished community in southwest Florida.

Based on their experiences with farm workers in Florida, the Nogajs are now championing the issues of "Fair Food," grown by workers paid living wages, and immigration reform.

Dick Nogaj chronicles their journey to make a difference in his book, "Don't Retire, Get Inspired," published late last year.

The Nogajs - Dick, 72, and Florence, 62, - say they hope their story will inspire other older adults to live their lives in ways that contribute to others.

"People are reaching retirement and asking the question, 'What's next?' It's not full-time on the golf course for the rest of my life," Dick Nogaj says.

Florence Nogaj says they don't expect readers to follow their exact path, only to do something to help improve the lives of others.

"If you start small and experience good, you will build up the desire," she says. "It's a way of life for us."

Unfinished businessDick Nogaj traces his desire to build affordable housing to the popular holiday movie "It's a Wonderful Life" that he watched as a child growing up in Chicago. He secretly longed to model the movie's compassionate savings and loan president, George Bailey, by building a Bailey Park of homes for people who could not afford them without help.A spiritual conversion in the 1960s led Nogaj to march with the Civil Rights Movement. Hope gave way to disillusionment after the assassinations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy in 1968. Nogaj turned his attention to his career, started his engineering firm in 1975 and built it into a nationwide business.Nearly 20 years later, Nogaj was ready to move on. The transition was abrupt, but not entirely surprising given Nogaj's background in the 1960s, Hollenbeck said."There was some unfinished business for him in changing the lives of others," he said.Nogaj had divorced and met Florence, a woman who shared his desire to make a difference in the world. He started the RJN Foundation to be the giveback arm of his company.When employees said they wanted to buy RJN Group, Nogaj persuaded the company's principals to join him and Florence on a trip to Americus, Ga., to build a house for Habitat for Humanity. He foresaw correctly that the trip would serve as a bonding experience to prepare the employees to take over the company.In Georgia, Nogaj met Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, and the person he says still inspires him most. On their return to DuPage County, Dick and Florence began holding planning meetings to start a local Habitat affiliate. Fuller would later describe DuPage County as the hardest place in the United States in which to build Habitat homes, Nogaj says.Habitat held its first groundbreaking ceremony for a single home in West Chicago in 1995. Nogaj wanted to build small clusters of homes, but those proposals were met with vigorous opposition. Attitudes eventually softened and several clusters of homes have been built. Nogaj says he doesn't regret his efforts, but he laments the projects that did not come to fruition."Every home that was built by Habitat from Day 1 has improved the neighborhood," he says.Today, Habitat for Humanity DuPage still is housed in a building that is headquarters for Nogaj's RJN Foundation.The couple continues to be supportive of Habitat's work in DuPage, but have no connection with it."We see ourselves as builders, but not hangers on," Nogaj says.Angel encounterNogaj already was mulling his next move when he picked up a well-dressed hitchhiker in Wheaton in 1998. He hadn't given a ride to a hitchhiker in at least 30 years, he says, but he found himself taking the man to St. Daniel the Prophet Catholic Church.Before the hitchhiker left the car, he turned and said, "God has something very big planned for you. Many will try to convince you that you will not be able to accomplish it. You should persevere. Listen to God's calling and proceed when his plan is revealed."Wondering what the man meant, Nogaj drove a few blocks to a fast-food restaurant and sat in his car eating lunch when he was surprised to see the hitchhiker through an opening in the bushes. The man was smiling, had a closed umbrella tilted against his shoulder, and a gleeful step in his stride before he walked out of view.In the years to come, that encounter would sustain them when the going got tough, the Nogajs say. They stop short of calling the "angel" a celestial being."It wasn't anybody with wings or anything like that. It was a real person," Dick Nogaj says. "We believe that's how God works, through other people."The Nogajs found their next step when, on a vacation in Florida, they drove to Immokalee where they had read tomato farm workers were on a hunger strike. Nogaj says there, in the midst of wealthy Collier County, they found poverty comparable to what they had seen in the Dominican Republic."When we saw this kind of thing in Immokalee, we were stunned," he said. Nogaj decided Immokalee was where he would build his Bailey Park, a community he christened Jubilation. But the couple wanted to do more than provide affordable homes. They also wanted to provide fair wages for farm workers and opportunities from higher education.While work on the housing project was going on, the Nogajs established a blueberry farm to raise a crop that would allow them to pay living wages. The farm was devastated by Hurricane Wilma in 1995 and is now leased.Jubilation, however, was a success. All 89 homes and condominiums were sold, with the Nogajs actively working to qualify buyers for loans. The activity center they built for the community was donated to Hodges University, which established a satellite learning center on the site. The project has spurred other development in Immokalee, Florence said.After more than seven years, the Nogajs concluded their work in Immokalee was done. During the three months of the year they still spend in Florida, they take college students on alternative spring break tours of the area to introduce them to the needs.Dr. Wayne Robinson, pastor of All Faiths Congregation that the Nogajs attend while in Florida, said the couple put their money where their mouths were by pouring large amounts of their own resources into their work in Immokalee."They've given where it hurts," Robinson said. "They think of themselves as red letter Christians. What Jesus said is how they try to live their lives."Moving onThe Nogajs acknowledge they are not as financially secure as they once were, but say they've found a deeper satisfaction. "It's about experiencing those rewards that are intrinsic as opposed to experiencing financial success and all the toys that go with it," Dick Nogaj says.The couple turned their energies from building homes and planting blueberries to underlying societal problems. They'll be discussing those matters on an Internet radio program that will debut at 1 p.m. Sept. 20 on VoiceAmerica.com.Nogaj calls agriculture systemically broken because growers don't earn enough for their crops to pay fair wages to farm workers, who are often migrants from other countries. He advocates a tax credit with a sunset provision to enable growers to pay above minimum wage and still be competitive."Most of the growers in that part of the country are not price makers. They're price takers," he says. "That's what we call an upside down industry."The Nogajs are betting consumers will be willing to pay a little more for groceries marketed with a Fair Food label if they understand the situation of farm workers."Consumers are paying the least amount of money in terms of percentage of our income as any country in the industrialized world," Dick Nogaj says.Nogaj also is an advocate of immigration reform, which he says must include more secure border control; a path to legalization for immigrants already here that would include penalties and requirements; and employer accountability for those they hire."It's a humanitarian issue. It's a moral issue," he says. "It's not conservative or liberal. It's not Republican or Democrat."The Nogajs are working with others to establish a coffeehouse in DuPage County to promote civil discourse among people of differing views. Frank Goetz, a longtime acquaintance of the Nogajs, is part of that effort."I've just grown to admire the guy and what he's been able to accomplish," Goetz said. "He's affected many, many lives and he's going on to the next thing."The Nogajs also are marketing their book to tell their own version of "It's a Wonderful Life." Like banker George Bailey, Nogaj has learned his life makes a difference to others."They're better off with me in their life than they are without me," he says.True20001277Dick and Florence Nogaj stand in front of the Wheaton offices of RJN Foundation, a giveback organization Dick Nogaj founded as he prepared to retire.Bev Horne | Staff PhotographerTrue