This week’s Rotarian of the week was born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the northwest suburb of Mt. Prospect. He attended Prospect High School and played football and track during his HS years. His first job was with the Mt. Prospect News Agency, delivering Chicago papers early each morning on bicycle before walking to school. His pay was 1-cent per paper with a daily load of about 55 papers. A fond memory is waking up on a customer’s lawn after falling asleep while riding and delivering the papers. He simply got up, undamaged, and finished the route.
Following high school, he attended the University of Illinois for two years majoring in chemical engineering. Prior to graduating, he enlisted in the US Air Force in 1966 and served for 24 years. His service began in Alaska at a remote radar site near the Arctic Circle on Indian Mountain as a power plant operator/mechanic. From there he moved to Germany stationed with a mobile tactical radar unit on an Army base containing a tank brigade of the 3rd Armored Division.
It was in Germany where he met and married his wife. After five years in Germany he moved with his family to 13 different stations for a varied active duty Air Force career. From 1980 - 1983 he was the Chief of Industrial Engineering Analysis and Energy Manager at the U.S. Air Force Academy and from 1984 - 1988, he was the Chief Industrial Engineer at F. E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne. His final AF assignment was two years at the University of Wyoming as an Assistant Professor of Aerospace Science in the Air Force ROTC department.
While in the Air Force, Jerry Haenisch continued his schooling and earned a bachelor’s degree in management, graduating summa cum laude, with a minor in Psychology from the University of Maryland, and another bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from the University of Illinois. He also earned a masters in Engineering Management from the Air Force Institute of Technology, and after retiring from the AF he completed a PhD in Leadership & Management from Northcentral University.
Following retirement from the AF in 1990, Jerry started an organizational training and consulting company, STEP Associates, and later a similar company, Triweg, Inc. In 1998 he joined a start-up university in Cheyenne, Preston University, as the training and development director, becoming its worldwide Chancellor in 2002. He has been a licensed professional engineer in Wyoming since 1990.
Jerry lives in Laramie with Ilse, his wife of 53 years. They have one son Mike and two grandchildren, Jakob and Stefanie. Jerry has been a Rotarian since 1990 and has served on a number of committees in the Laramie club including: the program committee, the news presentation committee, RYLA, and the Harley group. He is a charter member of the International Fellowship of Motorcycling Rotarians and served for eight years on the board of the Wyoming Territorial Prison and Old West Park in Laramie. Jerry has been a Sergeant-at-Arms with the Cheyenne club for many years and was also on the news presentation committee when that was active.
Jerry’s pastimes include walking with his dogs Surge and Spike on the beautiful prairies around Laramie, maintaining a fleet of eight older cars, and continued teaching online graduate courses for three universities.
As far as favorite Rotary moments are concerned, here are a few of Jerry’s:
- Presenting weekly news reports in the Laramie club for many years and later in the Cheyenne Club when the news was popular.
- Helping to design the rotating leadership approach for the RYLA teams in the early 1990's based on the model used by the Air Force’s Officer Candidate School for leadership training.
- Meeting and greeting fellow Rotarians each week as a Sergeant-At-Arms for many years with the Cheyenne club.
- Meeting with Rotarians around the world while traveling to many countries each year during the 2000s.
And finally, if given the chance, his favorite meal would be an Italian beef sandwich with fries as made in Chicagoland and surrounding areas.
Fellow Rotarians, please stand and honor our Rotarian of the Week, Mr. Jerry Haenisch!
