By Ken DeCoster
Special to the Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Retired journalist Wally Haas has been selected to lead a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enhance the city’s social and economic well-being.
Haas is the new executive director of Transform Rockford, which formed a decade ago with a goal of elevating the city into a “Top 25 Community by 2025.” The organization had been without a top executive for more than two years.
He started work for the nonprofit on Tuesday and fills a void in the organization created by the departure for former Transform Rockford executive director David Sidney in May 2021. Sidney now runs Place Foundry, a strategic development firm.
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Haas, 68, retired from the Rockford Register Star in July 2020 after working for the newspaper for 40 years. He began his career at the News Tower as a copy editor and most recently served as editor of the paper’s editorial page.
“There aren’t a lot of things that would have pulled me out of retirement, but this is one,” Haas said. “Over the course of my journalism career, if you look at the beginnings of Transform Rockford and how the newspaper’s editorial board agenda lined up, we have the same shared values and the same agenda moving the community forward. So, we aligned very well while I was working.”
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The Transform Rockford movement was launched amid great fanfare in November 2013 with a community meeting attended by more than 1,300 people at the Coronado Performing Arts Center.
At the outset, the organization trumpeted a goal of transforming Rockford by focusing on improving such areas as education, families and neighborhoods, safety, public infrastructure, unity, pride and culture.
An army of volunteers served on a variety of committees which met on a regular basis.
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In recent years, Transform Rockford’s public image has faded as it entered a quiet period without a full-time director. Haas said he hopes to infuse new energy into the movement.
“I want people to know that Transform Rockford is alive,” Haas said. “I’ve had people ask ‘Does Transform Rockford still exist?’ We haven’t done much in three years, but we’re here and we need to start doing things to make the community proud.”
According to its website, Transform Rockford is a 501c(3) organization that is privately funded through small donations from friends and residents to major community sponsors and from businesses who care about the future of the community.
The organization’s steering committee is slated to meet with Haas on Monday.
“He’s just going to bring the ability to take us forward and renew the deep level of engagement we had,” Transform Rockford steering committee chairwoman LoRayne Logan said of Haas. “And his love for the community is essential to participation in Transform Rockford.”
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Haas said he spoke Tuesday with Mayor Tom McNamara about his new role and attended the Rockford School Board meeting Tuesday evening. He plans to touch base with other elected officials and community leaders, including Winnebago County Board Chairman Joe Chiarelli.
“The connection back to the work of Transform Rockford and the literally thousands of volunteers who gave of their time and talents is what has been lost,” steering committee member Ron Clewer said. “I’m confident that Wally can help bring back the voice of the Rockfordian who wants better, who wants more and is willing to stand in the gap and help us achieve that as a community.”
Haas was born in Germany, raised in the Chicago suburb of Mount Prospect and has lived in Rockford since 1980, when he began working for the Register Star.
He is the father of Rock River Current managing editor Kevin Haas.
As for Transform Rockford’s goal of elevating Rockford to a Top 25 Community by 2025?
“While that was a great goal and a great catch phrase, what we want to do is continuous improvement,” Haas said. “Not just in 2023, ’24 and ’25, but well beyond that.”
This article is by freelance journalist Ken DeCoster. Email news@rockrivercurrent.com with any feedback.