Friday, March 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM until 11:00 AMCentral Daylight Time UTC -05:00
Robert Eschbach, a former mayor of Ottawa, Illinois, and the recipient of last year’s Simon-Edgar Award, will join the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute for a special virtual conversation on Friday, March 14 at 10 am. Eschbach will discuss his decades of community activity and municipal leadership with Institute director, John Shaw. Eschbach is a native of Ottawa. He attended Illinois Valley College and graduated from Illinois State University. He earned a law degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. He returned to Ottawa after law school and was active in his community, volunteering on projects related to environmental protection, historic preservation, and downtown and neighborhood revitalization. He served on the city’s Planning Commission for a decade and then was elected mayor of Ottawa in 1999 and served for twenty years until 2019. When he came into office, Ottawa was struggling with job loss and a badly deteriorating downtown. He pushed through a Comprehensive Plan in 1999 and another one in 2014 that won the Daniel Burnham Award. He also worked with colleagues on an important flood plain plan that won national awards. He focused on attracting jobs, downtown revitalization, riverfront development, city beautification, and cultural events. “Robert Eschbach is the embodiment of statesmanship in Illinois. He has worked for decades in the public interest, bringing people together, forging coalitions, and solving problems to make his community better,” Shaw said. “We should recognize the powerful and profound contributions of leaders such as Bob Eschbach and support them to make our communities--and our democracy—flourish,” he added.
Registration is no longer available because the registration deadline has passed.