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1 week ago | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
Thirteen years ago, I wrote the story of Aurora’s Warren Smith, who was a retired Catholic school principal and also the retired Aurora Area Superintendent of Catholic Schools. The editor appropriately titled the story as “A Good Shepherd of Catholic Education in Aurora.”Mr. Smith (he will always be Mr. to students and to teachers who worked under his leadership) passed away in December of 2023.
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1 month ago | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
Kirhofer’s Sports, led by its manager Cody Wyeth, won the championship of Boys Baseball of Aurora last summer. It was the second consecutive title for the minor league team which includes 9- and 10-year-olds. While not Earth-shaking news in the world of sports, it was important for the team members, coaches and parents.
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2 months ago | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
The late Marie Wilkinson was sometimes said to be the “matriarch of Aurora.” She was an inspiration to at least two generations of Aurorans as an activist and advocate of equal rights for everyone. She became synonymous with Aurora, and Angela Richardson began to learn more about her from reading newspaper stories in the 1990s. Knowing that the East Aurora—West Aurora athletic rivalry had also become synonymous with Aurora for many people, Richardson had a “light bulb” moment in 1997.
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Mar 16, 2025 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”We all know people to whom that may apply, and maybe you are lucky enough to actually be one of those people. I have known many, and one of the first people who always comes to mind is retired Aurora Police Officer Joe Beyke. Officer Beyke passed away in February at age 81, and his memory will live on in the minds of all of the young people he touched in his career in law enforcement.
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Feb 16, 2025 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
Needing to update my passport last summer, I headed for the Kane County Clerk’s Satellite Office in downtown Aurora. I was hoping to get help in navigating the process from someone working in that office. I was lucky enough to meet Rene Romero, who is responsible in that office for passports and for redeeming taxes—accepting payment for current and late taxes. He patiently answered all of my questions, and helped me with assembling my photos and documents. He impressed me as a caring public servant.
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Dec 14, 2024 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
Having worked in a large public school for most of my career, I began to realize that day-to-day operations ran smoothly because of the work of secretaries. Principals, deans and department heads were important, but things operated efficiently because of the secretaries. I had a second career of sorts as a volunteer in the Waubonsee Community College Adult Education Department.
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Nov 16, 2024 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
As happens to me after attending the Aurora Veterans Day parade and celebration each year, I departed this year’s recent event feeling many emotions. I am so very proud of all of our veterans, and I am grateful to them for so much. I was slightly disappointed later that day to see a Facebook post commenting that “the parade gets smaller year by year.”Having attended the celebration for decades, I have noticed quite the opposite.
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Oct 19, 2024 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
“What unites us is greater than what divides us.”Unfortunately, we have all become too familiar with the divisive rhetoric coming from our many different politicians. So much so that I have even started to wonder if the above quote is meaningful at all during these tumultuous times. I have hope that it does still hold true for our nation, and I see situations along the way that keep that hope alive for me. It can be something as simple as a reunion of old school football teammates.
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Sep 13, 2024 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
Great moments are born from great opportunity. Hollywood tells us that Olympic hockey coach Herb Brooks inspired the United States team to its famous victory over the Soviet Union in 1980 with those words. I spent an unforgettable day in Indiana recently to watch the Northern Illinois University football team face that great opportunity in its game against the University of Notre Dame. And a great moment was born as the NIU Huskies defeated the Fighting Irish in a nationally-televised event.
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
chicagotribune.com | Tom Strong
You can always spot them, even from a good distance away. When you see an older man saluting the flag at an Independence Day or other patriotic celebration, there is a good chance that he is a veteran of the Korean or Vietnam wars. In the year 2024, there is only a small chance that he would be a World War II veteran. But I was lucky enough to meet one on July 4 as our national anthem concluded at the Aurora Historical Society’s Tanner House Museum.
