Employee Spotlight: Helen Strecker

In April, 2005, Helen took a leap of faith and applied for the receptionist's job at Chicago Communications. During the interview, she said, "It was interesting explaining why my last 'paid position' had been in 1972." That's what happens when you are a stay at home mom for 33 years.

Helen’s first job after graduating from secretarial college in New Jersey was with a major retail company.  She was a secretary (yes, that's what they were called then) to a vice president; and she did it all.  Correspondence, advertising, budgets, scheduling and yes, even his personal shopping.  When she got married, her husband's job took them out of their hometown and across the country to Illinois.  Then, along came three boys, a house and a station wagon - suburbia at its best.  And once again, she was doing it all - school committees, charity organizations, Scouts, sports and car-pooling.  They went through a station wagon and two mini-vans during that time.  When asked, "What do you do?" her polite answer was usually "how much time do you have?"  She was fortunate, she was able to stay at home to raise her children, run her home and contribute to her community.  In 2000, Helen became a widow, the "children" were grown men and there was no need for her to be at home anymore.  In 2004, she got married again, and decided to see what was out there. 

Always busy at his work station, Dan Wolski has fixed radios, accessories, televisions, and security equipment for Chicago Communications since 1994.

Originally from the Chicago land area, Dan grew up interested in electronics and their functions after a friend introduced him to radios. He ultimately decided to make it his career. He attended a technical school in Indiana, in the vicinity of Valparaiso College.

Dan’s career in radios began in a small CB store his friend owned, located in Kankakee, IL. There, he would repair all sorts of radios, ranging from small hand held two way radios to entire radio systems installed in vehicles. He decided to then move back up to the Chicago area, where he landed a position within ChiComm.

Meet Our Technicians: The Experience Behind ChiComm

To date, I've interviewed and shared the unique stories of over 15 members of ChiComm's qualified service team. So it only seemed fitting to meet with the leader of the pack, so to speak. Emory Ludtke, III, is that leader. A leader who not only likes to preach that "Failure is not an option" but one who also says: "I'm in charge of supervising some of the finest radio technicians I've come across in all my travels around the world."

     Lester started at ChiComm in October of 1983, and upon his retirement next week he'll have put in just over 29 years here. He has primarily been a mobile installer for ChiComm but he’s done a little bit of everything throughout his years here (base installs, microphone repairs, squad builds, responding to service calls). At the time he started the cellular business was booming in full swing so he jumped right in to learning how to install mobile cellular units in cars. Besides the skills he learned from some electronic courses he learned everything he knows on the job.   His job description includes: installing a wide range of equipment in vehicles and repairing equipment when necessary, whether in the shop or on location at a customer site. A majority of the jobs he's worked on have been for government agencies, including dozens and dozens of squad cars and undercover vehicles. He has been working on vehicle solutions for as many years as he can remember.      

 As veteran's day approaches we'd like to take the time to pause and thank our Veterans! Let's salute and honor those for being American soldiers, Marines, and sailors, and Coast Guard members, and National Guard members — all those who have served and currently still serve our country—for we deeply appreciate the sacrifices they have made in serving to keep our freedom intact.