Inspiring Good

Bob Deputy on Family Legacy and Civic Leadership

• Marshall King • Episode 25

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In this episode of the Inspiring Good Podcast, host Marshall King talks with Bob Deputy, a prominent business and civic leader in Elkhart, Indiana. Bob shares the rich history of his family's involvement in the community, from living in the historic Ruthmere Mansion to running the Godfrey Conveyor Company, which later transformed into the successful Godfrey Marine. He discusses the evolution of Elkhart's business landscape over the decades, his pioneering efforts in philanthropy, and the inception and impact of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. Bob also elaborates on the revitalization of Elkhart's downtown and the significance of partnerships and community engagement in driving positive change. His insights offer a profound look at leadership, community service, and the enduring spirit of generosity that defines Elkhart.

00:00 Introduction to the Inspiring Good Podcast
00:38 Bob Deputy's Family History in Elkhart
04:49 The Evolution of the Family Business
07:28 Philanthropy and Community Involvement
13:58 The Birth of the Community Foundation
17:31 Revitalizing Elkhart: Key Projects and Partnerships
27:44 Leadership and Legacy
28:53 Conclusion and Final Thoughts

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This show is a production of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. It is powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded in The Riverbend building in Elkhart's River District. Editing is done by the award-winning communication students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listen to Globe Radio at 91.1 FM. Learn more about the Community Foundation of Elkhart County at inspiringgood.org You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn. Music is provided by Sensational Sounds. Thanks for listening. We hope you are inspired and inspire good and your community.

Marshall King:

Welcome to the Inspiring Good Podcast. This podcast is brought to you by the Community Foundation of Elkhart County, which serves a vibrant community in northern Indiana, known for its generosity and strong network of nonprofit organizations. I'm Marshall King, who is hosting this podcast solo. For the time being, our guest today is Bob Deputy. A long time business and civic leader in Elkhart, as well as a donor and philanthropist. Welcome to the Inspiring Good podcast, Bob. Thanks Marshall. So your family's history is really intertwined with Elkhart's story. You, there's, I learned from touring the Ruth Mere Museum that your family lived there for a time and talk about some of the roots that, that your family has in Elkhart.

Bob Deputy:

Yes we lived in Ruth mere, as luck would have it. After the second World War my parents were moving from Nebraska to Indiana and had chosen to, to come to the South Bend Elkhart area. I. My mother was with child and was going to have a baby pretty quickly, so they needed a house they could get into now. And the Ruth Meir property was for sale. And since they already had a number of children, they needed a house that could handle a lot of boys. So we ended up at Ruth Mere and it worked out terrific. And it's ironical that my dad worked in Mishawaka. And he made the comment that you never buy a house west of where you work because otherwise you'll be driving into the sun on the way to work and on the way home. So we had to buy a house in Elkhart so he wouldn't have to drive in into the sun on the way to work. So that's the cliff notes of how we ended up at Ruth Mere. And it is a gift because. There were beautiful homes along Beardsley Street at the, in the forties and fifties. And at one point a couple of'em were torn down and the church was built. And when the beautiful home that was right next to Ruth Mayer, which was a brother's home, a Beardsley brother, was actually a more modern and a gorgeous French style home. And that home was to be the the rectory or the parsonage for the church. When that home came down unexpectedly, it torn down. My, my father almost had a stroke. He said, you don't tear down things like that, though. You don't ever see those things. You just don't. And he said, I'll be darned if I ever want a gas station on the corner where this house is. So at that point, he had determined that eventually he had to have a vehicle to preserve the house. So as fate would have it, Robert Beardsley wanted to buy it, he bought it. And quite frankly we were tenants in the house really for 20 some years, but. Robert Beardsley is the one that has maintained it and kept it as a treasure in the community. So it's unique how things work out. But that really worked out, I think, for a real benefit to the community. But the credit belongs to Robert Beardsley. He was the the visionary in a guiding light that said this is, can be restored.

Marshall King:

So you grew up here. But at some point everybody makes a choice to stay here. So what was your entry into civic and community life in the town where you grew up? I.

Bob Deputy:

You gotta go back to the era we grew up, but you went through high school. If you had the chance to go to college, that was great. But you also at that time had a draft deferment. So you knew when you finished college, you were going in the service. So once you completed college, a service obligation or military obligation, and then came back to town to try to help on the fledgling company, the family company. And so you're just toiling with and again, people have to realize in the, in this point, would've been in the fifties and very early sixties that, business was a big difference from what it is today. You, a new car cost what,$2,500 or$3,000 and not$50,000. And so the businesses weren't doing the kind of volume that we see today, but it just came back here to work in a family business. And that's, I had five younger brothers all whom were, either going on to college or wherever. And so I happened to be the first one here and they needed cheap help. So was, what was the family business at the time? The family business was a Godfrey conveyor company, which had been around since the early 19 hundreds. But that company and it's that's a whole long story, but that company Bill. Primarily what I call bulk material handling equipment. And the historically the straw, the main product was coal. And if you think back and as a kid growing up, the coal trucks would come along, deliver coal to the homes, and they'd put it in their coal bin for'em. And so Godfrey back in early 19 hundreds, that created equipment to be able to unload coal out of railroad coal cars and get it into trucks to be able to deliver it. To local customers, but by the mid fifties, that was a vanishing breed. At one time there were 18 coal yards in Elkhart, Indiana. And yet in, in the late fifties, if you made a phone call to a coal yard and there'd be a bunch listed, the same guy answered all the phones'cause they'd been down to one. And the there was a, an. A opportunity to consider other equipment. And Godfrey did make a lot of other equipment sand handling. Did a lot of work in for foundries where they handle sand to make their castings. And then at some point, probably ooh, in around 19 60, 59 or 60 had a chance to experiment with building an aluminum pontoon boat. And so that was the metamorphos from coal conveyors to sand handling to major heavy equipment, to a new idea of pontoon boats.

Marshall King:

And God for Marine is what your family is now synonymous with, right? And known as a leader in the industry and continues to be. And you. You were, so you said you were cheap help, but at some point you obviously became leadership in the company.

Bob Deputy:

We're a very small company. Back I. Be 15 employees. So there was not many employees. Somebody's gotta make things go. And over time, yes, we grew the product came along. I think that we had competition, a lot of competition. There were a lot that in fact. Today the heart of the boat building industry is in Elkhart County. Not say we started it, but there was a, StarCraft and Godfrey were the two that were building boats before anybody knew they were fashionable. We were fortunate. We survived. We'll say, because again, it wasn't like today. You weren't putting, 350 horsepower motors on the back of a pontoon boat. The early days they, the biggest motor they built was a 25. It was a whole different world. And, but it all works, and when you ask about philanthropy and that type of thing. I think part of the issue is first you gotta survive. So you've gotta feed your family and so forth, but then you can begin to think about it. And one of the things that hit me as we were building the company and had become a lot more than 15 employees, maybe had grown to be several hundred employees. Now we were very vertically integrated. In other words, today a supplier brings parts to you and you put'em together. There was nobody to make canopies. There was nobody to weld frames, there was nobody to do furniture. And so we built in effect either built or acquired or rented facilities to be able to make all the parts. And one of the things that hit me was the United Way would have a fun drive every year. And you'd say the company should support it, and you'd do what you could for the size of your company, and two or three of your key people would give some money, but your employees really didn't. And so at that point had to be probably in the seventies by then my brother Larry was working with us and pretty darn sharp, and he said, why don't we make this fun rather than ha having this. A drudgery. Oh, hey, we've gotta tell everybody to give to United Way. So he came up with a plan, which was brilliant because we had five different plants. And so he said, let's just have a party and we'll get ready for the party. But what we'll do is we'll say, every employee, decide what charity you want to give to, and whatever charity you give to will match it. And so that way we'd find out whether they even cared about charities. And these are people who are not making a lot of money. They're just working on the line or working in the upholstery or whatever. And then on top of that, if you decide to do it, then we'll give you a jacket that's got your name on it. We'll give you something for it, and you can put it on payroll where they take out a little bit each month or each week. And then we'll see how it works. And then what we'll do is we'll have a party, we'll have a Halloween party. This is Larry's idea. And we went from, raising X dollars to raising 10 X dollars because we found out our employees really do have things they care about. And that gave us, and I say those are the things we ought to try to support the things the employees. Are already supporting. And if it was caps then we'd say, all right, then we'll make sure that whatever they do we'll match it to caps. And so that was a real trigger to realize that there, there is a generosity here that is, is more significant than people realize. I.

Marshall King:

Wow, that's a great story. That's gotta be like one of the early employer contribution matching programs. There might've been some others doing it but it was probably fairly novel at the time.

Bob Deputy:

I think it was, I think the idea of making it a party, making it not a drudgery, making it have fun was was the deal. And we went from being a very small donor to being a major. Donor to the United Way, but it got even better because United Way, our biggest competitor was in Goshen. And so they'd go to our competitor and say, you know what Godfrey's doing? They're gonna outdo you. So it became the two of us. We un once we figured out what they were doing, we said, we're not gonna let'em beat us. So you had this competition that the beneficiary at the time was United Way, but the Smoker Craft was huge as far as support. But I think that there was a friendly competition and the leadership of the company are dear friends today. Yeah.

Marshall King:

Yeah, it's, yeah, they're, it's good leadership at that company still too. Yes, it is. Like yours. What, so you mentioned Larry had this idea, were there other people in town or in your family that you learned this. How to think about giving time and money.

Bob Deputy:

I think, there are people community wise that seem to have a heart for the community. I was blessed to have a relationship through whatever with our DCO. Another one's, Bob Richardson. Others who were very quietly philanthropic. I think that today when you look at the career center in Elkhart and realize that was built with by businessmen who said, we need it. And it was built long before the current demand for this type of training. And yet. It, Elkhart was probably ahead of most other communities in the country, not the state, the country in having a career center that let people be prepared for a job if they weren't gonna go on to additional academic education. So you saw that this community just, there's a thread here that says, get things done. And that is something that becomes part of the DNAI think of the community. And I think that's what keeps you going and what you find is that most people, once they're able to satisfy their needs, then they are willing to share because, what more do they need?

Marshall King:

You mentioned the career center. We were talking a little bit earlier about before we went on air, about, when I was a young reporter at the Elkhart Truth, one of the first men that I encountered at the Career Center was a guy named Basil Turner. Yep. From CTS Corporation. And Basil was this humble, low key guy, and I had no idea how accomplished he was or how generous he was because what you noticed about Basil was his graciousness and his humility, and that seems to be so much a part of Elkhart County and Elkhart's story through. And in any number of people.

Bob Deputy:

And the irony of that, because you're a hundred percent right about basal but the other executives at CTS were the same way. They were the driving force behind the career center and the Walter Wells, and the Maynard Wells and some of the other names that are familiar today, stepped right up and said, by golly, if they're doing it, we're not letting them do it alone. And so it was but to me that is a benchmark that said, that says, Hey, they can do things a little different a little step out of the box compared to other areas. And

Marshall King:

it is paid off. It's paid off. And Bob you've been one of those people too. Like you said, you've seen something that needed to be done and you've responded. I don't. The Community Foundation was founded in 1989. You probably have memories of some of those early days and got involved I think relatively early on. What comes to mind as you think back to the creation of the Community Foundation?

Bob Deputy:

I. Befo before it was even founded. There was a feeling among a number of us that we needed something like that here because there was no way for people with a charitable mindset to be able to consolidate or. Combine their forces. And the beauty of the community foundation was one that, it was Elkhart County. It was the founders of some place. There's a list of them. But anyway, there were Goshen people or Middlebury people and Elkhart people and so forth. And then I think maybe a. A couple years later or something I know that Fit Wells and I were asked to join and we did. And the key to the community Foundation though, being able to start and succeed was the seed money that the, lilly Foundation provided, which at least got you started. And without that it was just so hard to get these things started. And today what we did back then is you planted acorns and we're sitting under the oak trees and they're gonna be very large oak trees because once it was there. And you had people like Goshen College had a fund. People like bill Budd who did all the paperwork and did everything. He didn't have any computer. He had a 13 column pay piece of paper. But again, the CTS guy but to see what was able to happen is absolutely astronomical. And when you think about it. Lily has been critical from day one. They have had challenge up to challenge eight or nine now to try to help professionalize the community foundations, let them grow. But without that first start, there would've never been a David Gunlock gift.'cause who would he give it to? And so having the entity here and thriving enabled that gift to be made. The real thing that happened to the community foundation that has become a real asset. The real asset is that Ena enables people to accomplish their own charitable gifts without somebody telling you, you have to give this or that they can do whatever they want. But the community Foundation is facilitating that, and it makes it so simple to be able to do charitable things for anyone who wishes that. It's almost a gift in itself. And then. The Gunlock gift gave it a chance to have discretionary money, which let them support things like the Aquatic Center, things like the well fields and those gifts are the things that enable those entities to be better than expected. No, the community foundation is, it's something that is a wonderful

Marshall King:

tool. And thank you for your involvement and generosity over the years as well. I think it's folks like you coming alongside us and who have made this part of this community's success story. And we'd like to say we're just stewarding the community's assets, and it doesn't mean we can sit by passively and but it's work, but it's joyful work and it's community work and it's made easier when we have. People like you who are leaned in to help do it. One of the things that you were a big supporter of was getting an iu. Outpost in Elkhart IUSB and getting an IU perch over here in downtown Elkhart was something that you've wor you worked at over the years and higher education's a hard nut and to crack sometimes but there is an Elkhart location. Why, talk a little bit about that and why that was important to you.

Bob Deputy:

That's a kind of an interesting one because. What really catalyzed it was having dinner with Jack Cine, who was taking a class at IUSB, and he said, my problem with this class is it's hard to concentrate because they're making pizza in the other half of the building and I smell this pizza and it's tough to say, I'm gonna concentrate on. What's going on here? And so we chatted and Jack Glen Banks were two early leaders said, we need to have our own location. When you think back, I taught a class at IUSB in about 1966 at the old Elkhart High School in a night class. And so since then until we got the building, they moved around about every three or four years, whoever would give them decent rent and they'd get a good rent. And then they spend a fortune getting all our technology hooked up so they could be in touch with Bloomington. It was, they were nomads and so there, there was higher education here sorta. And and a casual discussion, we said we need our own location. And so that's what started that. And then. A group of us had dinner with the chancellor and said we would like to see if we get a location and get their input on it, and so forth. And so we around the table and by the time dinner was over we had close to a million dollars already committed and said I guess we, we got some people who really believe this needs to be done. And that, so that was the real genesis of getting it done. But then the key person on this whole deal was Jack City. That building is gorgeous, thanks to Jack because the architect's plans originally were not what they should have been. And it, yeah, it, and when it first opened, I think they had almost 900 kids taking classes there. They've changed their format now a little bit but it was a real plus and it was fun to work on because the people pitched in, really pitched in, a lot of folks pitched in on that to get it done. And and it's a plus.

Marshall King:

As we sit here today, we're a couple blocks from that building, but we're in, something we call the River District now. Yep. In a river in the Riverbend building that was just opened three years ago. New buildings are going up. The Amichi has just opened the restaurant downstairs where I saw Jack walk in the other night. That's just how this is working where there's a vibrancy. Coming back to downtown for a range of reasons, but you have been an investor and an advocate and a supporter. Why? I

Bob Deputy:

think I have to backtrack a little bit. There was a, the YMCA here and. God bless Tom Hausen.'cause he's the one that was able to take the arrows to say that, we, it is not gonna work. We've gone through everybody's money we could get and it's not gonna work. And Tom Hausen, in terms of the building at that point and the building at that point, the maintenance of it and the fact that they did not have any kind of endowment. They didn't have any kind of, depreciation fund, and they were just it had gone too long. And they're also having to pay YMCA of Chicago wherever their district is, 50,000 bucks a year, which they didn't have. So anyway. When Tom and I had only just met Dave Weaver asked if, we thought they could do something there for another y and Tom had the vision that we can do more than a YI. And when I was able to see what they did by putting together not only the Aquatic center concept, but the Beacon Health Center and get the hospital, the schools the community, the foundation, and even the ready money. That would enable us to have a world class facility to me, that was amazing. And then when you had a Phil philanthropic citizen who said. If it's world class, I'll support it and how much I'll support it. Let me know what you need. And was able to raise a lot of money to build in effect what is now, or was anyway, the fourth largest pool facility in the country and a beacon facility that has drawn people. So to me, the aquatic center. Facility. And that$70 million project opened my eyes. And at that time I had met Dave Weaver and had made some calls to raise money with him. And he was a delightful guy. He was 30 some years old, and I said, holy mackerel, this guy is something else. And so once that was done and you looked at the property around it, it was a ghetto. It was the ghetto from the 19 hundreds. And before picture would show you, so who's the guy that said, now we got the building, but we gotta clean up this mess? And Dave Weaver said he'd take the lead on it. He said, would you go with me? And I said, I'd love to. And so not often they take a 80-year-old guy and say, with these young Turks, but he just got stuff done. So if you have a chance to, sail on the ship with a guy like that, you hop on. And so he's been a driving force to get things done and it is been fun to, to be around somebody who just keeps marching forward.

Marshall King:

And does so graciously too. Yeah, it sure does, right? It's getting things done, but it's not always it's often with some wisdom and grace from where I sit. But but you, like you do, you have this historical perspective. You've lived in Elkhart long enough to see a bunch of mayors come and go. A bunch of buildings come and go. Does this feel different?

Bob Deputy:

I think the key is there seems to be, especially with Dave, because he just has this tenacity and is willing to put his heart, soul and assets on the line. Personally the idea of the public private partnership, number one, number two, yeah. Is gotta be economically feasible. But we're not gonna try to retire on what you can make out of this one thing. We're gonna try to make this a better place. And the irony is, and I spent time with him long before the buildings were built, is that once the property was assembled and he had the acreage, the idea was the major developers would come in and do it. And the shock to us was when they said, no thanks. You're too small. We can't afford to put a staff in there. We, you can't get the rates here that you have to get. You're on your own. And, that was, a lot of developers had looked at it. And so Dave said, guys, we gotta try it. And without him, would I have tried it alone? No. But with a Dave, you're happy to work with him. And you know what me to, what do you want me to do?

Marshall King:

You talked about sailing, sailing on the ship. It's early in the history of the River District, but are you liking what you're seeing? I think that

Bob Deputy:

you're right, as early in the history, I think as the apartments are finished and people are living in them, we will see the walkable district. That this was vi, visualized to be the successes has indicated we need parking. So as we get more parking then Amichi can be open for lunch, yeah, exactly. But no I think it's moving the right way. It just moves slower than we'd like when you get to my age that

Marshall King:

oh, I would say it's moving too slowly for Dave and he's half your age, but, but what what advice do you have for the generations coming after you, a young. Person working in Elkhart or Elkhart County who's trying to survive, but then also maybe now is doing a little bit more than surviving. What advice do you have for that next generation of philanthropists or people that just wanna make this community better? I. But

Bob Deputy:

what I would say basically is get involved, but not get involved by really being willing to get your your hands dirty or your feet dirty. And get in wood. Just pick anything to me. Our parks departments are an asset, but probably could even be better if you had people with passion and so forth who wanted to be involved. But just pick whatever you would hit you and get involved. And to me one of the things is you'll find, you create new partnerships. And partnerships have been the biggest gift of my life business-wise and otherwise. It is amazing what you can do with a partnership. And so having good partners is important, but you have to do it. But you just get involved, whatever organization, love way Ryan's house. I think of these that are, currently active and probably be glad to have support. But you don't just go to meetings. You actually get involved. And it's amazing how many doors open once you do.

Marshall King:

I've heard you use the phrase, it's something that gets you outta bed in the morning. That's right. At this point what is that for you? I.

Bob Deputy:

I guess there are I've had a major gift in that I married a girl from this area from South Bend. Of course, I didn't know much about South Bend, but when you marry somebody from South Bend now, pretty soon you get to know a lot of people in South Bend, and we tried to convert their thinking to Elkhart, thinking it was pretty good. We did pretty good. But then we have our children and we've had five children, or have five children and four of'em are here. They're doing stuff that so far superior to what I ever did in my life that, that keeps you going. If you're just gonna get up and check on your kids, you're gonna have a full day.

Marshall King:

That's a gift. What are you trying to teach your kids or your grandkids about leadership?

Bob Deputy:

I think that the key thing on, on leadership is to think you're servant leaders. You're is not a dictatorship. You're a servant of others. And once you do, take that into mind. And one of the ways you, I learned that real early on is when I was in the service as an officer was fine, but I learned that officers eat last. Your troop troops eat first. They're well fed, they're well-trained, they're well equipped, you'll win. But if you concentrate on yourself, you're not gonna win. So officers eat last. And so if they keep in mind that take care of yourself last as far as these organizations, but make sure you give, and I think you get to a point where you, first you learn, then you serve and then you counsel or advise. And as you go through the lifespan,

Marshall King:

that's how it all works. That's a beautiful framing. And you're talking about a story you learned in the service about how you've always thought about leadership as like you've used that as a guiding principle for a long time.

Bob Deputy:

That don't underestimate the strength of military training. Wow.

Marshall King:

Bob it's been a pleasure to have you here today. I've, you're gracious and, and help our community in so many ways, and we're grateful for that. One last question that we always ask is, what gives you hope? When I see the

Bob Deputy:

aquatic center, when I see the fields, when I see what's happened here in the last few years, I look at the learner when it could have been torn down, but thanks to Jack Cine and others it is a huge asset to the community, but. People had to step up and give some money to get it done. Otherwise it could have been a parking lot. So what I see has happening in the last few years, what I see happening now Elkhart's in Great Shape.

Marshall King:

This show is a production of the Community Foundation of Elkhart County. It is powered by equipment from Sweetwater and recorded at the Community Foundation's offices in Elkhart River District. Editing is done by the award-winning communications students at Goshen College, home of one of the best college radio stations in the nation. Listen to Globe Radio at 91.1. FM music is provided by sensational sounds. Learn more about the community foundation of Elkhart county@inspiringgood.org. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We hope you're inspired and inspire good in your community.