Jaycees honor Naperville’s ‘trolley meister’ Don Wehrli

By Susan Dibble

sdibble@dailyherald.com

Don Wehrli complains good-naturedly that the Charles “Chuck” Bueche Lifetime Achievement Award recently bestowed on him by the Naperville Jaycees is premature.

“I’m only 83 years old and I have more to do,” he says.

But Kevin Piket, co-chairman for the Distinguished Service Awards given to Wehrli and seven other recipients on April 29, says the Jaycees are by no means trying to cut short Wehrli’s sphere of influence in his hometown.

“We know Don’s not done. It’s a great way to say thank you for everything you’ve done and everything you’re going to do,” he said. “There’s not much in this town that Don wasn’t involved with in one way or another.”

Wehrli — whose family roots in Naperville go back to the 1800s — served on the Naperville City Council from 1983 to 1987, helped build the Naperville Riverwalk, and has served as trolley meister of Naperville Trolley & Tours for the past 16 years.

Wehrli, a wellspring of inspirational quips and quotes, explains his outlook on life: “I think there are two kinds of people in the world, givers and takers. Givers are happy,” he says.

Wehrli has long been a giver, but he’s the first to admit his particular brand of plain-spokenness has sometimes ruffled feathers.

“He’s certainly opinionated,” said his son, Grant Wehrli, a member of Naperville City Council and the Jaycee who presented his father with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

“He’s passionate. I don’t always agree with him, but his heart is in the right place.”

Take the older Wehrli’s years on the city council when he resisted ComEd’s efforts to buy Naperville’s electrical system, which he believed was too valuable to sell. Wehrli says it ultimately cost him his career as a salesman because his employer had a contract with ComEd.

“That (the city council) was a difficult job because I’m not a politician. Politicians know how to answer questions by talking in a circle. I would call a spade a spade,” he says.

Trolley meister

Wehrli began his second career as trolley meister in 1995, but the inspiration came 50 years earlier. He was selling jams, jellies and ice cream in Disneyland in the mid-1950s and Walt Disney would stop by the stores and chat with employees.

“‘Don, there’s great satisfaction in making other people happy,’” he recalls Disney telling him. “I never forgot that. I wrote that down.”

Wehrli was visiting Victoria, Canada, when he found a new way to make people happy. He and his family boarded a double-decker bus and his sister remarked that’s what Naperville needed. Wehrli agreed, but since Naperville’s low-hanging trees made a double-decker impractical, he bought a trolley instead.

“The city talked about a trolley. The chamber of commerce talked about a trolley, but no one did anything,” he says.

Business for Wehrli’s first yellow trolley took off after he did his first wedding. “It blossomed like a flower,” he recalls. “When I brought the trolley to Naperville, it was like a touch of class.”

Wehrli now owns four trolleys, including a blue and white one with air-conditioning that he had custom made.

“It’s the most beautiful trolley in Illinois,” he says.

Naperville Trolley & Tours shuttles passengers for weddings, corporate events, birthday parties, bar hopping, bat and bar mitzvahs, ghost tours and historic tours in Naperville and throughout the Chicago area. Prospective students visiting North Central College and elementary children in Naperville take trolley tours.

“When they get through riding with me on the trolley, they know a lot about Naperville,” Wehrli says.

The trolleys run year-round, but Wehrli said they’re busiest in December during the holiday light tours, when they run from 5 to 11 p.m. The trolley business has taught him exactly what Walt Disney meant.

“I have a lot fun and make money doing it, and I donate a lot of money,” he says.

His daughter, Annette Wehrli, who now runs Naperville Tours & Trolleys, credits the attitude instilled by her father with making the company a success. On the back of her business card, she has written, “Life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. YOU are in charge of your attitude! ATTITUDE is everything!”

Don Wehrli works on his attitude. He volunteers, reads, socializes, does water aerobics twice a week, plays golf and belongs to a fitness club.

“At my age, you’ve got to keep in shape, physically and mentally,” he says.

Family legacy

Annette Wehrli recalls that her father worked hard for a living while she was growing up. He and their mother, Jean, taught their seven children to do the same, she said.

“We had to work for every penny that came out of his and my mother’s pockets,” she said. “We weren’t given anything but love and guidance.”

The lessons took.

Wehrli points out that all of his children, including the six who still live in the Naperville area, live active and community-involved lives.

His oldest daughter, Mary Lou Wehrli, is a former Naperville Park District board member. His son, Win, is a Naperville attorney; son Fred, a volunteer with Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry; and Grant, the youngest, a city councilman. Daughter Francie works with Annette in the family trolley business, and daughter Angela is a ski instructor in Colorado.

“The big accomplishment for me and my wife is raising a great family,” he says.

His wife, Jean, comes from another longtime Naperville family, the Knochs, and both parents instilled a sense of community service and volunteerism, Grant said. His father didn’t head commissions, but could be counted on to help with community projects, such as building the Naperville Riverwalk.

“He used to wake me up to go lay bricks on the Riverwalk,” Grant recalled.

Wehrli also has been a big supporter of the Last Fling festival the Jaycees hold Labor Day weekend, even though the carnival backs up to his house, Piket said.

“He sees the bigger picture,” he said.

Wehrli continues to work on his latest civic project as the chairman of a group that has presented what they call The People’s Central Park — a plan to reduce the parking around Naperville’s Central Park, expand the green space, add additional seating for band concerts and accessible restrooms. He admits he has’t received a very encouraging response from the City Council.

“It’s a long shot, but I believe if you persevere in something that’s good for everybody, you’re going to make progress,” he says.