Longtime Northbrook resident Ron Bernardi served with a key to the village
Sunset Foods employee Ron Bernardi, an 80-year-old, third-generation Italian American, is possibly the most popular person in Northbrook.
The village board officially added to his legend by giving him a "Key to the Village" Tuesday.
"The really, really cool thing about Northbrook is community, leadership and gratitude. And you embody all of that," Village President Kathryn Ciesla told Bernardi while presenting the key.
Ciesla's predecessor, Sandy Frum, and her husband, Carlos, were among a crowd that saluted Bernardi with a standing ovation before and after he accepted the key, the village's third awarded after Jesse Compher in 2022 and Judy Hughes this past March.
Sandy Frum now is president of the Rotary Club of Northbrook, and Carlos Frum a past president.
As a 40-year Rotarian, Bernardi embraces the service club's tenets so strongly he has its "4-Way Test" of proper conduct printed on the back of his business card for Sunset Foods, where he's worked for 64 years.
In 1966, Bernardi transferred from the Highland Park flagship store, founded in 1937, to Northbrook when "there were pheasant running around," he said.
"Service Above Self," Bernardi told the crowd at village hall, including Sunset Foods President and CEO John Cortesi sitting in the front row with the rest of the five-store chain's executive board.
"That's a motto that I always try to live by," Bernardi said.
Bernardi has served with the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Northbrook Civic Foundation, the Northbrook Historical Society and the North Suburban YMCA. He has acted as an auctioneer in demand, helping raise stakes and money for charity.
He's a fixture at parades, festivals, open houses, driving his popcorn truck to events such as Illuminate Northbrook and Shermerfest, this year on Oct. 1.
"Ron Bernardi has been a pillar of this community and has helped so many people and served Northbrook for 60 years. Everyone knows who he is," said 45-year Northbrook resident Frank Karkazis of FGK Services, also a Rotarian. "We all know him as Mr. Northbrook and he's helped so many people. He gives so much of his time, and I don't know anyone else in Northbrook that has done more for this town."
Fellow Rotarian Kathi Quinn, executive director of the Northbrook Chamber of Commerce & Industry, said Bernardi "is probably the best human that anyone could ever meet. He is such a wonderful person who cares so much about other people."
"'Service Above Self' is not only his motto, it's his way of life and he believes that giving service, helping other people, other organizations, is the way that keeps him young and happy," she added.
Bernardi said he saw the "hard work and self-sacrifice" of his grandparents, who came to the United States from Italy in 1910.
"I want to serve others and make a difference in the lives of others," Bernardi said. "For a happy life," he said, "two questions: "What's your God-given gift, and who are you going to give it to?"
The former Sunset Foods manager and now a community service representative, Bernardi still works five days a week, and has the physique and vigor of a man half his age.
"For me, and in general, I think retirement can be detrimental to your life span, to be honest," he said. "If you have an opportunity to serve and keep going, just keep going. That's who I am, and I don't feel like I'm an octogenarian. I've got too much to do and not enough time.
"But I guess the bottom line is how am I going to serve, and I think that's what life's about. Think about it - in our world, if everybody was serving everybody else, wouldn't it be a better world?"