Batavia’s Mayor Jeffery Schielke is a Army veteran and trained to be a combat medic

Throughout his life, Batavia Mayor Jeffery Schielke, 74, has worn many hats, including real estate broker, husband and U.S. Army National Guard and Army Reserve veteran.

Schielke’s birthday was selected for the lottery in 1969 while he was in the process of graduating with an associate degree from Sugar Grove-based Waubonsee Community College. He opted for the six-year commitment with the U.S. National Guard.

“I put my name on the waiting list because with the lottery there was all kinds of people that wanted to get in,” he said. “They weren’t sure how quickly they would be taking some of us, but it all rolled around pretty quick.”

During the spring of his junior year at Aurora University, Schielke headed to Fort Polk in Louisiana for 10 weeks of basic training.

“I went into the Army and then I went to combat infantry med school,” he said. “By the time I got out of Fort Polk, the fall semester of my next year in college had begun.”

He got a full-time job as a reporter at the Batavia Herald while completing classes. In 1972, he got a phone call that the Army Reserve was “creating a special unit of reporters” to encourage participation in both the National Guard and Army Reserve.

“We began publishing a little newspaper that we circulated amongst the members of the guys in the reserves about what was happening with us,” he said.

After working in the unit for almost five years, Schielke received an honorable discharge in 1976 – reaching the rank of full sergeant – and “felt very honored about the whole process.”

“Everything I was doing was very positive for the country and supporting our troops,” he said, adding his father, who received a Bronze Star Medal in World War II, inspired him.

Schielke continued to work as a reporter while receiving his bachelor’s degree in social science from Aurora, which he graduated from in 1985.

“It took me 18 years to get through it all but I got it all done,” he said.

He was named a Distinguished Alumnus of both the university and Waubonsee, which he called “a great honor.”

One thing Schielke has never done is slow down. In 1981, while still a student at Aurora, Schielke was elected mayor of Batavia, a title he still holds to this day. And he met his wife, whom he married in 1987.

Schielke has made a lasting impression on many of the people he’s met throughout his life, including Rev. Michael Rasicci.

Rasicci, 70, rector of Batavia’s Calvary Episcopal Church for the past 21 years, has known Schielke for almost five decades, first meeting him “around the time” when he was getting elected mayor.

“It was just interesting to meet somebody who was in local politics and who didn’t come across as somebody that was trying to sell you a bill of goods,” Rasicci said.

After Rasicci returned to Calvary in 2002, he said he got closer with Schielke, calling him a “down to earth, knowledgeable, relatable person.”

“I just think that he is a genuine person,” Rasicci said. “When he talks, you don’t have to worry about what he’s saying and what he might be meaning because what you hear is usually what he needs.”

Schielke said while he doesn’t have any specific traditions for Veterans Day, he always “makes a concerted effort” to go to the Batavia Veterans Day ceremony, which he and his wife have been very involved in.

“We have a very, very proud history of veterans in our town,” he said. “We have a special plaque over at the corner of Batavia Avenue and Wilson Street, which lists everyone from Batavia who was been killed in every military action from World War I through the Middle East.”