Todd Herbst
by
Judy (Earle) Waters |
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"Life
as you know it in high school will dramatically change once you've graduated."
This is what Todd Herbst told the 18-year-olds he was teaching at Sherrard High
School in the early 2000s. "The people you went to school with will be blown
around the earth," he said. He told them how their friends would scatter
between colleges, trade schools, and military service.
Having said that, Todd describes himself as "kind of a home boy."
He chuckles as he admits to once being
the proverbial teenage nerd. He belonged to the chess and rocket clubs.
Most of his rockets exploded. He likes to quote Bill Gates who cautions us
never to make fun of a nerd - he may be your boss someday.
Todd recalls how, when working at downtown Rock Island's Rocket movie theater,
he walked around carrying a cup of Coke to which he had added a
little blackberry brandy and thought he was "hot stuff."
He was paid 50 cents an hour for showing patrons to their seats with a
flashlight and recalls that classmate Donna Dempsey worked there too. At
school, Todd played tennis, and tennis coach and biology teacher Bob Motz was
one of his favorite people. Another of his high school favorites was his
two-toned, cherry-pink and apple-blossom white 1956 Plymouth Belvedere
convertible. This car had a tri-powered engine and push-button
transmission, and Todd was a hot-rodder. He stripped the chrome off and painted
the car wine red, added flippers and spinners to the front and fender skirts on
the back, not to mention a fuzzy on the mirror, lake pipes and, last but not
least, a wolf whistle for whistling at the girls. This car was Todd's Ode to Joy
as far as cars were concerned, and he loved to "ride the ones."
This car was to be his chick magnet.
It worked. At 16, Todd met his future wife, Candy Blunt, and they married
at the age of 21. Candy graduated from Moline High School in 1962 and, due
to the rivalry between their two schools, Todd felt like he was "sleeping with
the enemy" (RIHS that is). Today Todd has good memories of "growing up
with Candy."
He graduated from St. Ambrose College in Davenport in 1968 with a double major
in business administration and economics. However, upon graduation, Uncle Sam
had a looming presence with an invitation to the Vietnam War. Due to a
critical teacher shortage at that time, teacher deferments were being offered.
Todd spoke with an official in the Rockridge Community School District who
promised him a teaching position if he returned to school to get his teaching
certificate. Subsequently, Todd taught in the little town of Andalusia
after becoming certified to teach in grades K-12 in Illinois. He was paid
$5,800 a year and paid once a month for nine months. His wife was a
secretary at Deere & Company, and they bought a little two-bedroom fixer-upper.
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Their
son, Drew, was born when Todd and Candy were 30. Candy wanted to be a
full-time mom, but it was hard to make it on a teacher's pay, so Todd left
teaching after becoming the vice principal of the Andalusia school where he had
taught for nine years. He joined IBM only to learn it was not the organization
for him. In his eyes, "they wanted to own you." He didn't like the idea of his
employer deciding who his friends should be or forcing him to relocate. While
working at IBM, he continued on his own in his entrepreneurial spirit and had
acquired a fair amount of real estate that he needed to stay close to, so he
left IBM and went to work for Deere at their new parts distribution center in
Milan. It was a good life with good pay and benefits. When Drew started to
school, Candy returned to work at Deere as well. After 12 years, Todd was a
victim of a huge downsizing at Deere. At one time, there were 1,200 employees at
the parts distribution center. Today there are 300 due to layoffs and
outsourcing.
Todd says he's never been one to stick his head in the sand and feel sorry for
himself. He looks forward to the next opportunity. After Deere, he went to work
for Quad City Metal Pickling, a steel processing plant. He was hired to run the
office and computerize the whole company. They built a new $3.5 million plant,
Vision Pickling & Processing, near Chicago, and Todd became one of four owners
and the vice president of the company. All of his friends and family were in the
Quad Cities, and he had a company in Chicago. He commuted from Moline to Chicago
for ten years before selling his interest in the company.
Then, at 55 and financially comfortable, he wondered what he was going to do. He
decided to go back to teaching and was shocked when Sherrard High School hired
him to teach business and economics. They could have hired a recent college
graduate for much less, but Todd had the business experience. After the first
week, he wondered what he had gotten himself into. The difference between 12 and
18-year-olds and the difference between teaching in 1968 and 1999 was like night
and day. "The kids already knew it all," he laughs. The hardest thing to teach
them was a work ethic. He focused on tasks they would use every day like
budgeting, balancing the checkbook, the stock market, and how to buy insurance,
to name a few. They organized and
ran a for-profit corporation in the school. Todd taught at Sherrard for five
years and was able to retire. He had suffered two heart attacks and a pulmonary
embolism and thought life was too short to work so hard. His principal at Sherrard knew he was planning to leave, however, and offered him a teaching
position at Black Hawk College where he was told he "wouldn't have discipline
problems." Although Todd was burned out, he accepted the job at Black Hawk
teaching digital photography and computer photo editing for three years and
loved it because his students loved learning.
During his teaching years, Todd continued as an entrepreneur. Two projects he's
most proud of are a laser pool cue and mobile mini-golf setup. He's down to a fourplex and four houses in his real estate holdings. One of his purchases is
his Las Vegas Fun House where he and Candy now spend their winters and rent to
others as a short-term vacation rental. (www.lasvegasfunhouse.com
Todd shares that he faced a bitter disappointment when his son announced that he
was not college bound after high school. Seeing that Drew had a great talent for
graphics, Todd offered to help him get started in his own sign business. Drew
was very successful in that business, learning it through the "school of hard
knocks." Todd later inherited the sign business after Drew went to work for
Knight Rifles in Centerville, Iowa. From there, he was offered a job with the
Springfield Armory in Geneseo, Illinois where he is now the merchandise manager
and happy to be closer to home. Todd still runs the Monarch sign business with
Drew doing much of the design work. Drew has been featured on the cover of a
number of national magazines.
Drew also likes to play volleyball. He's married and is the father of two
daughters, ages 12 and 18. Both girls are volleyball players.
 In addition to staying busy with his sign company, Todd performs magic shows
under the name Joker's Wild Magic, something he's enjoyed since childhood. He's
also the president of the Quad City Magic Club and continues to play tennis. He
and Candy have taken three cruises and hope to take more, particularly to
Hawaii. Candy retired after 30 years at Deere.
Todd says he was a river rat in high school and at one time was in the process
of building four boats along with friends Mike Crapnell and Bill Edmund. Today
Todd has a cruiser. It was very hard to lose his long-time friend Bill Edmund,
and Todd made the trip to Florida to say his goodbyes to Bill.
Being a member of the Class of '62 Reunion Committee is also one of Todd's
hobbies. He produces 95% of all the graphics and signage for the reunion and
reports that the committee is working hard to make the 50th a lot of
fun for everyone. He would enjoy hearing from friends and classmates at
toddherbst@mchsi.com.
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