‘I’m just a storyteller’: Meet the St. Charles retiree turned murder mystery author
He has written three books since retiring in 2012 from his role as manager of electric and communications utilities for the city of St. Charles, but Glynn Amburgey does not consider himself a writer.
He leaves that distinction to his wife, Donna, an attorney by trade but a writer at heart who has penned two books.
Instead, Amburgey considers himself a “storyteller” who enjoys creating murder mysteries.
The evidence comes in his three fiction pieces, establishing the “R.I.P. Series” that follows the life of main character Dave Harbinger, a sergeant in a sheriff’s department in a fictional Springfield.
Harbinger is thrust into the role of sheriff in the first book when the county’s sheriff is killed (“R.I.P. Sheriff Will”).
The second and third books follow that theme as Harbinger tries to solve the murder of a chief of police (“R.I.P. Chief Taylor”), as well as a sheriff’s sergeant (“R.I.P. Sgt. Harden”) killed in a mass shooting.
It took time for Amburgey to feed his love of reading and, ultimately, attempt to write his own books.
After serving in the Air Force, he used the G.I. bill to earn two degrees in electrical engineering at Purdue University, while working full time at an electric utility in Indiana.
He had jobs in the 1980s and ’90s focusing on engineering and electricity before landing the job in St. Charles in the late ’90s. It was a job that would keep him close to home and eliminate the business trips he took three to four days most weeks. He worked for the city for 13 years before taking an early retirement offer.
“When I was working, I read a lot, but it was all technical, keeping abreast of the industry and such,” Amburgey noted. “I never had much time for reading for pleasure. But after retiring, I was doing that and reading fiction, things like the Jack Reacher series.”
Before long, the idea for the first murder mystery took hold in his mind. He figured his wife, as the true writer, would love to tackle the topic. He figured wrong.
“She said, ‘I’m not writing it; it’s your book. If you don’t write it, it will never get written,’” he explained.
Having seen his wife crank out a lot of pages in a short period of time for her books that focus on Native Americans, Amburgey took on the challenge. He wrote his first book in three weeks.
Further motivation came from former Kane County Sheriff Pat Perez, who agreed to look over the first draft. When Perez got back to Amburgey a few days later, he said he could not put down the story once he started.
Amburgey released his first book in 2013, the second in 2016 and the third in 2021. He’s currently working on a fourth. All are self-published and available on Amazon, but those interested also can order books from Amburgey at amburgeyg@comcast.net.
At age 75, Amburgey said he’s having a lot of fun with his books while playing more golf and diving into other hobbies, including model railroading and narrating audio stories.
When hearing his voice, it’s easy to understand why he has produced 30 narrations for other authors in a YouTube series called “Window Reads.” His YouTube channel for the model railroading hobby is amodelrailroadnewbie, where he has placed 97 videos.
“My theory has always been that authors and writers have the ability to weave words and phrases into a poetic symphony that puts the reader into whatever frame of mind that the author feels is important,” Amburgey said. “To me, that is a real art, and I never have professed myself to have that capability.
“Donna does, because she is the epitome of a writer; that’s who she is,” he added. “I’m just a storyteller, and I can’t be put into the same class as writers and authors.”
So far, the storytelling gig is working out just fine.
Piling up the plastic
St. Charles Kiwanis members have seen a lot of plastic bags since starting a collection program in 2018, converting that plastic into a good cause.
The Kiwanis say they have collected more than nine tons of plastic in that time period, with most of it coming from the plastic bags we carry out of stores.
The club does it through a recycling pickup program at 11:30 a.m. on the second Tuesday of each month in the parking lot at Third Avenue and East Main Street, just west of Baker Memorial United Methodist Church. What happens after the Kiwanis pick up anywhere between 250 to 400 pounds of plastic each month makes the effort worth it.
Club members take the plastic they collect in small bags and load them into larger bags to weigh and transport to the back dock areas of retail partner Jewel Food Stores on the east and west sides of St. Charles and also in Elburn.
Trex, a company that features composite decking, established a program called NexTrex that converts plastic bags into eco-friendly benches. NexTrex picks up the large bags at the Jewel stores.
So far, NexTrex has converted the bags from the Kiwanis into more than 20 benches it has delivered to the club.
The Kiwanis have placed the benches in various spots in the Fox Valley, among them Lazarus House, Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Salvation Army, Fox Valley Hands of Hope, Fox Valley Christian Action, St. Charles Unit District 303, Baker Memorial United Methodist and others.
“These benches are made from recycled plastic that would otherwise have gone into landfills,” said Joel Mulder of the Kiwanis.
The U-shaped parking lot for pickup, across Main Street from the St. Charles History Museum, makes it easy for people to drop off plastic bags.
“A stream of cars, with many, many regulars, drive through on that day and drop off plastic,” Mulder noted. “They pop open the trunk and we are there to pull the plastic out and combine it into larger bags — some small amounts, some large amounts.”
In addition to the plastic collection, the St. Charles Morning Rotary Club asked the Kiwanis if it could collect Styrofoam at the same time in the parking lot. The Kiwanis were quick to say yes.
“Like plastic, Styrofoam does not go away in landfills,” Mulder said. “We are glad to support this effort.”
The Kiwanis work with the Key Clubs at the high schools and Builders Clubs at the middle schools “to get them involved in doing their part to not only keep plastic out of landfills but provide eco-friendly benches for our nonprofits in the community,” Mulder added.
Pride for a World War II veteran
Laura Fennel wanted to make sure area residents knew her grandfather was celebrating his 100th birthday and that he was one of that dwindling population in our country of men who served in World War II.
Fennel’s recent post on Facebook encouraged folks to join a car parade for her grandfather, Dave Werdin of Kaneville.
The Honor Light parade took place last weekend and Werdin was certainly worthy of the recognition.
Werdin and his wife, Lynette, were highlighted in the newspapers last year when celebrating their 75th wedding anniversary.
He was in the Army’s 11th Airborne Division during World War II in Japan and got married six weeks after his discharge from the service in 1947.
The couple has four children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Werdin has been around these parts a long time. In her post, Fennel told us Werdin grew up in Batavia, where he operated a dairy farm until moving his family to Kaneville.
Fennel’s pitch for others to participate in Werdin’s celebration had plenty of merit.
“With less than one percent of our World War II vets still surviving, this is a chance to honor and thank a member of the Greatest Generation,” she wrote.
A reason for relief
That sigh of relief you may have heard throughout the Tri-Cities area recently was from area residents pleased to hear that St. Charles planners denied the massive Charles Farm project being pitched through Pulte Home Co. LLC.
It had been a long time since I heard so many people concerned or downright annoyed at the notion of a 970-acre project, including a 967-unit Del Webb section and many other homes, going up in open space west of St. Charles.
It’s not out of the realm of possibility that Pulte would come back in the future with a smaller plan, or that it would see if it could pitch the proposal in a new location solely with Geneva planners. Not likely, but not impossible.
In any case, St. Charles Mayor Lori Vitek’s response to the plan denial was professional and measured, essentially thanking Pulte for its time and, in a nice way, for getting so many residents engaged. Or would it be enraged?
That’s like poking a bear with a stick, but being glad the bear didn’t eat you. Still, it was a far better farewell to Pulte as far as St. Charles is concerned from a legal standpoint than maybe I would have handled it in simply quoting W.C. Fields and saying, “Go away kid, you bother me.”
dheun@sbcglobal.net