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| Abilities
Center Director Jon Lundin heads toward the podium after it was
announced that the Abilities Center had won the 2002 Excelsior Award
at Cliffbreakers in Rockford. |
ROCKFORD — Jon Lundin, president of The Abilities Center and a champion of revitalizing the city’s manufacturing-heavy economy, died Thursday.
The list of Lundin’s accomplishments is long. He was an author, a local historian and an advocate for revitalizing neighborhoods.
Lundin was the president of the Abilities Center, a nonprofit education, training and employment provider.
Winnebago County Board member John Ekberg worked closely with Lundin and said Lundin’s enthusiasm for Rockford was contagious.
“He will be sorely missed as a voice for not only the needy but manufacturers who have been such a backbone to Rockford,” Ekberg said this morning.
Lundin was a major force in documenting Rockford’s history with several books, including “Rockford, An Illustrated History.” Lundin’s book, “Master Inventor: How Howard Colman Created a Multi-National Corporation,” was published late last year.
David Byrnes, president of Midway Village and Museum Center, called Lundin Rockford’s “historical consciousness.”
Lundin was active at the museum, contributing to exhibits and offering suggestions. He was a skilled speaker who often lectured at the museum, Byrnes said.
“John was proud to be a Rockfordian, this was his home,” Byrnes said. “He was very proud of the legacy that previous generations of Rockfordians had left. He had a huge intellectual curiosity.”
Under Lundin’s leadership, the Abilities Center renovated six dilapidated housed on Kishwaukee Street to provide affordable housing for the center’s clients. He was a pioneer who believed in a culture of entrepreneurship, pushing, among other efforts, for a high-technology manufacturing research center.
“He looked back in history at what makes Rockford great and said, let’s duplicate those efforts in the 21st century,” Ekberg said. “He said, let’s be proud of our roots.”
Brian Leaf, executive development director at Severson Dells Nature Center, worked with him on a grant for the EIGERlab.
“He was a great idealist in a world where there aren’t a lot of idealists anymore,” Leaf said.
Check back at rrstar.com for more on Lundin.