Lundin’s lesson for Rockford: You can do it

Jon Lundin was an optimist in a town where optimism isn’t easy.

Lundin, who died Thursday night, was president of the Abilities Center, a nonprofit education, training and employment provider. That was his formal title. His informal title was chief innovator and quiet cheerleader.

He was also an author and historian. His book, “Rockford, An Illustrated History,” was the standard reference on Rockford.

Where bankers and lawyers provide the backbone in some communities, Lundin believed Rockford’s soul belonged to manufacturers. Their love of tinkering — finding a solution through trial and error — spoke to his own love of innovation. He believed people learned by doing, and that the key was identifying their interests.

He didn’t want headlines. But he was a moving force behind many important ideas to move Rockford forward, including the EIGERlab, a high-technology manufacturing research center.

Lundin lived the adage “Surround yourself with interesting people.” He craved intellectual energy. He didn’t just seek out new ideas; new ideas were his oxygen. If an idea was worth chasing, he would be the leader of the pack, chasing it.

He networked before networking became popular.

Monica Glenny, president of Datacraft Inc., said she first met Lundin when she was an accountant right out of college. The Abilities Center was her client.

Over the years, Glenny served with Lundin on various boards. Glenny said he was always thinking and often sought her advice on what was hot in technology. She called him a quick-pace person who always asked: What can I do better? What should I be doing differently?

“At the Abilities Center we try all kinds of things,” he told her. “We keep the things that work.”

And a lot worked. The Abilities Center won an Excelsior award in 2002. The award is given annually by the Register Star to an organization that has a positive impact on life in the Rock River Valley.

Lundin was a historian, but he also was a humanitarian with incredible compassion for people. Phil Pilcher, who worked for Lundin at the Abilities Center, said Lundin’s parents drove him to Elgin when he was growing up because they wanted him to see how poor people live. That was during the glory days of manufacturing in Rockford, when everyone had a job. His family believed in giving back.

The lesson stuck with Lundin. He embraced refugees, finding jobs for them at the Abilities Center building on Kishwaukee Street. They made rag rugs out of scrap textiles and tended a vegetable garden in back.

He had the same faith in the potential of his employees. Often, people would pitch a project to Lundin and he would assure them that the Abilities Center could pull it off.

“He would tell them, ‘Yeah, we can do that,’ ” Pilcher said. “And then he came back here and asked, ‘Can you do that?’ ”

David Byrnes, president of Midway Village and Museum Center, was right when he called Lundin Rockford’s “historical consciousness.”

The city has suffered from an inferiority complex. Lundin knew none of that suffering.

It seemed the more he knew about Rockford and its people, the more enamored he became.

“He believed in us,” Pilcher said. “We are poorer today.” We sure are.