The Quad-City Times - News, Sports and more from the Quad Cities region or Iowa and Illinois

You are not logged in.
Login

Log in to qctimes.com
Email:
Password:
Remember my information.
Register
Quadsville
Site Help

Wilson announces retirement from Family Resources

Font Size:

By Barb Ickes and Thomas Geyer | Saturday, December 01, 2007 |

Most people try to give plenty of notice before leaving a job.

“Actually, we had a couple years’ notice,” Char Maaske said of this week’s official announcement that Tom Wilson is retiring from Family Resources. “It seems to me he let us know a couple years ago.”

Maaske, board chairman for the widely used social service agency, said Wilson is leaving on June 30 after 34 years. He spent the past 12 years as president and CEO of the Davenport-based organization.

She said she expects the full board to approve of a move to replace Wilson at a January meeting.

The position will be advertised for a couple of months, she said, followed by interviewing. Ideally, the new candidate will be hired in time to spend a couple of months working with Wilson.

She credited Wilson, “a wonderful leader,” with routinely preparing the organization for the kinds of changes that are inevitable in social services.

“He’s always looking ahead, and change is just part of his mantra,” she said. “You never know what the government — at the federal or state level — is going to fund.

Wilson said Friday night that he had been reflecting just a bit on his years at Family Resources and his long marriage to his wife, Barb.

“I realized that Barb and I, 42 years ago in December, got on an airplane and went to Bombay, India, for the Peace Corps,” Wilson said. “We arrived in India on Christmas Day, and spent two years working in the Peace Corps. That was the beginning of our life together as social workers and teachers.

“Barb retired after 34 years of teaching and now it’s my turn,” he said.

While they haven’t thought much about what they will do with their time, Wilson said that for sure he and his wife will spend time with their daughters, one of whom lives in Connecticut with her family and the other is a lawyer in San Francisco.

But before he goes, Wilson said there still is work to complete at Family Resources.

“I want to make sure we finish this whole thing really strong,” he said. “We’ve got some work to do yet.”

Barb Ickes can be contacted at

(563) 383-2316 or bickes@qctimes.com.

Thomas Geyer can be contacted at

(563) 383-2328 or tgeyer@qctimes.com.