A chance meeting at Homewood’s 2024 Fourth of July parade launched Homewood native Robert (Bob) L. Anderson Jr.’s journey to become president of the village’s historical society.
“I parked close to where I grew up, and my wife Tammy and I were setting up our bag chairs when this lady asked if she could sit next to us,” Anderson said.
Anderson said that after the lady unfolded her own chair and engaged in a bit of small talk, he realized he had crossed paths with her previously and that the two had many community and family connections in common.
Before he knew it, Homewood Historical Society (HHS) co-founder and past president Elaine Egdorf was asking him to give an HHS presentation about his late great uncle, Lester J. Wolf, aka “Radio’s First Martyr,” at one of the society’s monthly meetings.
Wolf earned the “martyr” title when he died at the age of 19 in 1926 in an electrical accident while trying to fix an equipment problem during a live broadcast at WOK, Homewood’s fledgling AM radio station.
“We need you for February,” Egdorf told him, and the date was booked.
“I did a deep dive into the story and found out things about my uncle and about WOK I didn’t know,” Anderson said.
A snowstorm pushed Anderson’s presentation date to May, and by that time the historical society needed a new president. Egdorf enticed Anderson into running for HHS president, and 90 days ago, he was voted in to direct the 45-year-old historical society, which is headquartered in the Dorband-Howe House Museum at 2035 W. 183rd St. in Homewood.
Not everyone is able to prepare engaging presentations and get a good read in 90 days on where an organization is and where it needs to go, but Anderson has impressive credentials in radio, journalism and management, all of which allowed him to hit the ground running, and he had help.
“I am enjoying the association with so many dedicated people and with Elaine, who is the heart and soul of the society. She has served as president and still organizes the programs, which is one of the most significant things we do,” he said. “She knows every nook and cranny of the museum.”
He already is making plans for a membership initiative, ways to draw Homewood newcomers into the society, and strategies for raising money to maintain, preserve and present HHS’s huge collection of artifacts, some of which date to Homewood’s beginning.
“What’s happening with the historical society is probably happening with a lot of groups like this,” Anderson said. “People are moving away or stepping down. New people are moving in. We have volunteers, but we don’t have enough dues-paying members. I need to address membership, but we also have to help people utilize what we already offer, build awareness that we’re at the library nine months out of the year, that we have this beautiful museum full of artifacts, and that this place has to grow.”
Anderson said he initially acquired his presentation skills as a student in Homewood-Flossmoor High School’s radio program.
Dorband-Charles Albee Howe house at 2035 W 183rd Street qualified as
a historic monument.
“We were in two small studios off the gym. Compared to what they have now, it’s like we were in a closet. But we thought it was the center of the universe with a station (WHFH-FM) that broadcast H-F basketball games. Several of us had rock shows during the evenings, and I did a sports show a couple of times a week in the late afternoon,” he said.
He continued to work in radio after he graduated from H-F in 1973, and in 1990 he pivoted to bank marketing. But he never abandoned radio and journalism completely. His multi-tasking skills came in handy while he worked as a senior vice president for retail banking and marketing in Oak Brook, as a Chicago Sun-Times freelancer, and as a producer and on-air host of a live business update for WMBI-FM’s “Morning Drive” program, to name a few of his accomplishments.
Anderson will follow his debut HHS presentation on “Radio’s First Martyr” with a Sept. 10 salute to the 70th anniversary of the Great Match Race between two champion thoroughbreds that drew more than 35,000 spectators to Homewood and Washington Park Racetrack in 1955.
(Washington Park was destroyed by a grandstand fire on Feb. 5, 1977, and replaced by retail establishments and the eastern portion of Izaak Walton Preserve.)
For more information on the Homewood Historical Society and its programs email [email protected] or call 708-799-1977.
Related story:
Homewood Historical Society to present a tale of two horses (Aug. 20, 2025).
