For this year’s Kewanee High School homecoming, the Honorary Boilermakers are Mary Simaytis and Kevin Yepsen.
Mary attends every home game, match and meet. Her whistle can be heard above the roar of a crowd.
Graduating in 1981, she moved back to Kewanee in 1997 and started working at Novak Travel Agency. In 2002 she started working at KHS.
She was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame twice, in 2013 for the 1979-80 volleyball team and in 2017 for the 78-79 girls basketball team.
Her longtime colleague Rosalie Foes said, “Mary is one of the hardest workers I know. She will do anything she can to help you and she helps everyone. There is no one more deserving of this honor than her.”
Co-worker Mindi Goard said, “I can’t think of anyone more deserving than you. The one who keeps everything running smoothly in the office and my co-pilot with the Music Boosters band trip to the Liberty Bowl in Memphis. What an adventure we had! You are an inspiration to all who are blessed to know you.”
Kevin Yepsen graduated from Kewanee High School in 1985 and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1989 with a bachelor of science degree in finance. After graduating, he worked as an investment representative at Edward Jones in the Chicago area.
In 1990, he moved home to Kewanee when he accepted a loan officer position with Community State Bank. Within three years, at the age of 26, he was named president and chief executive officer of the bank.
While strengthening and growing a community bank certainly has a huge positive impact on the lives of community members and the vibrancy of the community, his work strengthening the community has reached well beyond the walls of the bank. His efforts outside the bank have improved the economic vitality of the region over the duration of his career by supporting new and growing businesses.
We all have seen and felt the results of his efforts as he played an integral role in helping the Kewanee School District apply for and receive a $1 million interest-free loan through the federal government. This allowed the district to repair roofs and add technology such as computers and electronic white boards to the classrooms.
The Kewanee Schools Foundation raised a 10 percent match to these funds ($100,000) to purchase additional technology.
He has also directed the use of bank funds in the annual support of over 40 various community organizations across several of the communities served by the bank including sizeable gifts to the Kewanee, Wethersfield, and Galva school districts for technology, annual scholarship giving, and capital projects.
He regularly supports a myriad of community fundraising efforts from civic organizations, youth sports, and school athletics.
Sharing his time and talent within the community, Yepsen served on the Kewanee Schools Foundation Board of Directors and the OSF St. Luke Hospital Regional Board of Directors.
In early 2017, he became an expert in consumer, ag, and commercial distributed solar energy systems. If you see the solar panels on the roof of Kewanee High School and other district buildings, you will be reminded of our Honorary Boilermaker.
He orchestrated a solar power purchase agreement (PPA) project on behalf of 11 Illinois school districts that will save the districts at least $7.9 million over 25 years with at least $4 million of that savings Kewanee, Wethersfield, Galva, Bradford, Alwood, and Williamsfield schools. Most recently, he has worked with the Kewanee School Board in analyzing a proposed community solar farm at Belle Alexander School. This project will generate approximately $12,000 per year for our ag program and $10,000 per year in scholarship funds to benefit Kewanee High School students.
In addition to his career in finance and banking, he is a skilled carpenter and woodworker, owns and manages farm ground, and remains an entrepreneur who continually researches, designs, implements, holds and sells various business ventures.
