EDITOR’S NOTE:
Mahomet Chamber Award Winners
Business of the Year–P&P Heating and Cooling
Emerging Business of the Year–Core Concepts
Community Impact–The Open Room
Ann Paul Community Servant–Mark Kesler
Lyn Ferdinand Volunteer of the Year–Michael Hernandez
Ambassador of the Year–George Schoonover
NOTE: The Mahomet Daily has featured each of these winners in recent days.
By FRED KRONER
Mark Kesler is not Andy Griffith, and Mahomet is not the fictional community where Griffith portrayed a sheriff in a hit 1960s television show that filmed 249 episodes.
Yet, there are similarities.
“Although Mahomet has grown considerably over my 64 years of living here, it’s still Mayberry to me, where I know most people and feel safe and secure,” said Kesler, a 1975 Mahomet-Seymour graduate. “I love to give back to our community because this community has been very good to me and my family.”
That attitude of servitude is the reason Kesler was recognized on Thursday (March 31) as the Ann Paul Community Servant of the Year by the Mahomet Area Chamber of Commerce at its annual banquet, held at the Champaign Holiday Inn.
A professor in the business department at Parkland College, Kesler is an entrepreneur who is well-known and well-respected for his civic duties.
He is involved with the Mahomet Rotary, is a former president of the Chamber of Commerce and has overseen golf outings and fundraisers, both in Mahomet and for Eastern Illinois University, in Charleston. He also sits on the board of directors for Fisher National Bank and has served on numerous committees for the Lutheran Church of Mahomet as well as New Horizon Church.
Kesler is also the executive director for Central Illinois Pinnacle Forum, a Christian business ministry.
“To be considered a finalist for Community Servant of the Year, humbly speaking, means my work and involvement as a servant leader is working,” Kesler said. “I believe turning the traditional pyramid of organizations upside down, serving and supporting from the bottom is the best and most efficient and effective way to achieve the greatest achievement and satisfaction.”
Kesler was born and raised on a farm northeast of Mahomet, along with his three older sisters. He attended schools in the M-S district as did his wife, the former Tammy Roth. Their children, Anna and Adam, are also M-S graduates.
“I’ve always been involved and interested in business and knew at an early age I wanted to own my own business in Mahomet,” Kesler said.
After first owning a business in Champaign, Kesler started the Mahomet Subway in 1989.
After selling the Subway stores, Kesler was looking for a different career path. He landed in the role of teacher in 2003.
It was a natural fit.
“My wife Tammy was a full-time instructor at Parkland, after teaching at MSHS for several years, as well as some close friends,” Kesler said. “Bruce Henrikson (from Mahomet) hired me as a part-time instructor and after a fellow instructor retired, I was hired full-time.
“Over the last 19 years, five part-time and 14 full-time years, teaching has changed dramatically, from showing lecture notes on an overhead projector to online and Zoom classrooms.”
Most rewarding, he said, is the interactions with the students.
“My favorite part of my job is the opportunity to meet a hundred different students every semester, several from all over the world,” Kesler added. “I still stay in touch with students from Haiti and Egypt.”
Kesler is also the owner of the Eastwood Plaza and, with his family, is a partner in No Limits Fitness and the Prairieview Plaza.
He credits Rod Carlson and John Alumbaugh for sparking an interest in the Mahomet Rotary.
“I’m very proud to be part of the original group to start the Mahomet Rotary Club many years ago,” said Kesler, who has been involved with the Mahomet Chamber of Commerce since 1990.
The rewards are not ones on which you can place a value.
“It’s the people you meet and work with, and the satisfaction of helping others and our community,” Kesler said.
And that community, which had a population of a little more than 1,300 residents when Kesler graduated from high school, remains very similar more than four decades later, except for the population.
“I don’t think much has changed over the years, even though our community has grown,” Kesler said. “The Mahomet community is blessed with so many caring people, especially the business community, who all help support our community in so many ways.
“Walter Pierce (Mahomet Chamber executive director), has grown our Chamber to unbelievable heights, inviting new businesses to the Mahomet community. Support those who support you.”
Kesler is pleased to have spent the majority of his years in his beloved hometown.
“I love all the memories I’ve been blessed to enjoy in Mahomet,” Kesler said. “I couldn’t think of a better place to live, raise a family, and own a business.
“I’ve been truly blessed to live my life in the Mahomet community.”
Pierce said the Community Servant category is focused on individuals who “go above and beyond the call of duty in their role as a civil servant in the Mahomet area or volunteer with not-for-profit organizations.”
In his spare time, Kesler is a golf enthusiast, especially, he said, “playing new courses around the country with my close buddies.”
Beyond that, family time is a priority.
“I love going on vacations with my entire family and I really love my two granddaughters,” he added.
