Note: Rudi Steiner of Homewood, Illinois, is a 1961 BHS graduate and older brother of the Icon creator.
Tell me something you never wrote home about?
I couldn't tell mom and dad then and I can't tell you now.
Well maybe that I've heard gun shots a couple of times and maybe I have been shot at once.
Where was that?
I was standing outside the Chicago Police and Fire Training Academy taking pictures of one of last high rise Chicago Public Housing units at Cabrini Green as it was being torn down. Someone took a shot at me from inside the building being demolished.
Chicago is famous for mobsters, have you ever met a one?
Lot's of them. (edited)
How do you know when you're dealing with mobster?
Most of the time you sort of just know or there's talk about them and their connections. Sometimes you read about them in the newspaper after you had dealings with them. The mobsters I have known have been really nice guys. I do a lot of work with municipalities (edited)
Who's the most famous one you met.
Probably (edited) was convicted for being a front man for the (edited) brothers. F. Lee Bailey wrote a chapter about the (edited) brothers in his book The Defense Never Rests. Two brothers I know recently were released from a federal penitentiary they were involved with the mob in the town of Cicero.
What do you do for a living?
I provide support services to public, private, and institutional commercial swimming pools. I work in a very specialized niche; I'm sort of like a pilot who brings a big ship into port. That's my specialty.
You're a "Pool Guy"?
Sort of, I don't do backyard pools I only work with the big ones over 100,000 gallons. I don't physically do the work I train engineers and pool operators on how to operate their pools and how manage their water issues.
Can you fix Bluffton's pool?
Probably, I'm like a doctor I don't treat my own family but know some specialists than can.
Should Bluffton University build a pool in their new Sports Center?
Yea, if they plan to the serve the best food in Bluffton at their food concession stand. The concession stand is where public pools make money. Swimming pools are a lot of fun but provide service to a very small percentage of the community most swimming pools are a losing proposition.
What the best part of your job?
I really enjoy working with and training the Chief Engineers at Chicago Public Schools. Eighty per cent of what I do is with 75 Chicago Public Schools, working in an urban high school is a real challenge. I have a lot of respect for those who have chosen urban education as their profession. My wife was an urban educator for 35 years it's a tough job. Working with the Chicago Fire Department and Chicago Police Department Marine Unit is the most interesting but Lincoln Park Zoo is the most fun, I do a lot of behind the scene stuff there.
You haven't retired yet, why?
It took me 20 year to figure out how to do my job, I finally got it right and now I can't quit. Cheryl is smarter than I am she figured out how to retire 10 years ago, I must be a lousy planner or a slow learner, she retired after 35 years teaching and is enjoying her retirement by spending time with grand children. Our son and his family live four blocks from us, he has five year old twin girls and we have them 2 days a weeks. Having twins around is really a lot of fun but I never realized how much work two kids the same age can be. I have a lot of respect for the Pattersons, Althuses, Basingers, DeViers. Mrs. Jordan should be Saint. She had three.
Did growing up in Bluffton prepare you for life in the big city?
Yea, Bluffton had a lot of alleys I used them a lot at a kid, alleys were short cuts to a lot of places in town. I learned to use them to get places fast and sometimes used them as escape routes. To survive in Chicago you really need to know the alleys, backstreets and you got to have escape routes. Sometimes I'll be some place just doing my job and I'll think "what the hell is a boy from rural Ohio doing in a place like this?" Chuck Hilty admitted to me he has had these thoughts, too.
When did that happen to you last?
I was in an elevator at 125 S. Clark at Chicago Public Schools Administrative offices going up to the 15th floor to tell the Director of Department of Operations, of the 3rd largest public school system in the US something that wasn't going to make him very happy. I would much rather been drinking coffee at Al Ingalls restaurant that day.
Who was your favorite teacher?
They were all great! Wilber Howe sprayed our mosquitoes. Millard "Ben" Herr was a high school custodian and a substitute teacher "what a great guy and mentor he was." But none of them could teach me to read. I really never learned to read until I was an adult. Then one day it sort of kicked in and I've been an avid reader ever since.
Who do you read?
Faulkner, Corbig McCarthy, Mark Twain mostly southern writers.
I like authors who write long wordy sentences with no punctuation and use words I don't understand. People with ADA get these guys. They write the kind of stuff you have to read over and over to get it right. You should read Faulkner's The Revivers. It's all about Bluffton.
Who did you hang out with in Bluffton?
Dewey Forman, the Fullet brothers, Dales Joe Kohli, Chuck Hity and some town characters and misfits. Actually I grew up on Lawn Avenue, life was very parochial there. My grandparents lived next door, aunts and uncles lived in houses next to us, so my world was a pretty safe place. The Steinman girls , the Welch's, DeViers, Jan Benroth, Billy Schumaker, Chuck Niswander we're my playmates, At some point I found the Jordan clan, and the Reichenbach boys, my teen-age years were spent on Riley Street with the Swanks, and the kids on south Main and Thurman Street. North Main was always off limits and still is, too many Republicans up there.
Have you ever been scared?
Yea, once I got lost in the tunnels beneath Lane Technical High School it took me 45 minuets to find my way out. Lane Tech is the largest school in Chicago. It's a city block square and houses 4,000 students.
Have you had any "brushes with greatness?'
I've seen most Chicago mayors at one time or another. I saw Studs Turkel crossing the street once. I about ran over Harry Carey and his wife "Dutchie" when I was backing out of the alley between the Palmer House and Millers Pub. Cheryl and I had our picture taken with Mike Ditka when we ate at his restaurant. I knew Tom Dreeson and Tim Reid. when they were just starting as the comedy team Tim and Tom. I saw both of them in January 2010 and we had a good time reminiscing. Cheryl and Tim Reid's wife taught together in the same school when we lived in Markham. I drive President Obama's house on 51st street a couple a time a month, does that count?
How did you end up in Chicago?
It's sort of complicated the short version is this. One hot August summer night in 1959 I picked up a frequency skip on a GE 6 transistor radio. WLS 890 am was coming in loud and clear from of Chicago. WLS was playing some Doo Wop from a group I never heard before I told Buck Schifke who also was listening "I'm going to live there someday." The long version involves the Viet Nam war and would take a long time explain.
What was Chicago like in the late sixties?
The late sixties were days of civil unrest and great political turmoil. It was scary at times. The civil rights protests were winding down, but there were still lots of housing issues. Viet Nam War protests were regular occurrences on Chicago area campuses. And of course there was that little problem at the Democratic Convention with the Chicago Police in Grant Park in August of '68. I stayed away from the riot areas when ML King was assassinated in April, 68. We could see the fires a mile away in Harvey, Illinois, from our house and there was a smoky haze over Chicago when the 125 fires were burning on the west and south side. I know people who were involved in the riots in Chicago and Harvey as well as some of the victims of the violence. Every once in awhile I still meet someone who was a part of the riot, or the Police assault in Grant Park during the Democratic Convention, A friend of mine had to stay on the roof of the Sears YMCA for 3 days while the west side of Chicago burned, it was the safest place for him to be.
You grew up during the height of the civil rights movement. Did you do anything subversive?
I attended a SNCC rally at Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. John Lewis was the speaker that day. In 1968 I went to a SCLC concert at the old Chicago Amphitheater and heard Dr. M.L.King speak this was only a few months before he was assassinated. There were also few other things' I never wrote mom about.
You travel a lot. Where do you go?
We have a Motor coach a 40 footer it's really big and made by the Amish in Nappanee so I guess that makes it good. We use to travel more but now we have a place we go to in Sawyer, Michigan in Harbor Country. It's only an hour from home so we spend our weekends there from May through October.
I have some quick questions give me few quick answers.
What is your politics?
Way left of center. I guess I'm a progressive Democrat, which to some is a dirty word.
Best Doo Wop song ever?
Come Go with Me by the original Del Vikings, however their revival version for PBS in 2000 is the best remake ever. Look it up on You Tube it's great!
If you could drive any car what would it be and where would you go?
I would love to take a green 1953 Studebaker pickup truck and run old route US 61 "the Blues Highway" down through the Mississippi Delta from Memphis to the Gulf of Mexico. I've done it several times in an air conditioned Motor home. The heat of August would be great time for this ride, you, me, and Hilty. He could ride in the back of the truck with the chickens, and with "NASCAR Sucks" painted on the side of the Studebaker Chuck would have a lot of explaining to do Bubba and Billy Bob.
Best beach you've ever visited.
Henderson Beach, Florida, has the best sand, but Lakeside, Michigan, has the best sunsets anywhere.
Which artists do you miss most?
Walter J. Baum and Bob Marley.
Best last dance song.
I'm a horrible dancer, your making me a high school junior again, The a capella version of "Dream Girl" by Norm Fox and the Rob Roy's is Doo-Wop 101. These guy's were one of the first inter-racial Doo Wop groups, three Jewish kids and two African-Americans, that was quite a statement for 1957. Young love and harmony, that was what doo-wop was all about.
Got any brotherly advise.
Yea, The world is a great place to live, but it's not perfect.
We weren't promised things would always turn out as we would like them to.
Do you think you will end up back in Bluffton?
Eventually, Cheryl and I own a plot of land a mile north of the Ebenezer I'm sure we'll end up there.
