BY MIKE HELENTHAL
Commercial-News
DANVILLE —
David Harby is a road warrior.
Don’t even try to guess how many miles the Danville Area Community College Board of Trustees vice-chairman has logged over the years serving on far-flung committees and commissions.
His latest foray into long distance public service began in July after he started a one-year term as chairman of the Illinois Community College Trustees’ Association.
“I feel a strong obligation, for a guy at my stage of life, to give back to my community,” he said. “There were people before me that planted a lot of trees and dug a log of wells.”
Tuesday found Harby leaving Danville before 6 a.m. for a Chicago commission hearing and returning just in time to grant a media interview request an hour before trustees met for their July business meeting at 7 p.m..
Following the meeting, he returns to the family farm near Catlin — a 14-hour-plus day behind him — catches up on reading the local newspapers and somehow finds time to rest before facing the rest of the week.
Was it mentioned he also owns and operates a local financial consulting business and has served on the board of the National Association of Insurance? Or that he also regularly holds leadership posts at church and area charities and is a former two-term member of the Vermilion County Board?
Harby, a DACC trustee since 1999 and former ICCTA regional director, doesn’t see the unforgiving schedule and voluminous resume as anything unusual.
“I’ve been to Springfield a few times because I’ve always been active politically,” he said. “Some days are busier than others. I still have a pretty high energy level.”
The ICCTA leadership comes at a perfect time in Harby’s life, he said, because his kids have grown and he has the time to devote to advocating for the state’s 273 community college trustees.
“My days of coaching soccer and Little League are behind me,” he said. “I want to do it now, not in 10 years.”
Harby said he and his wife of 25 years, Terry, who holds a high-profile finance job that also takes her away for long periods of time, have developed a system that balances the many aspects of their busy lives.
“I’m not going to let my business suffer for this,” he said, “but we’ve set our lives up to make it all work.”
He said quality employees at his Country Insurance and Financial Services business allow him to spend time on outside efforts (“I talk to them constantly”), and the entire family still strictly adheres to a regular Sunday dinner schedule.
Despite the crazy calendars, Harby and his family are somehow able to balance it all.
“You can do anything,” he said, “but you can’t do everything. Sometimes it’s just hard to say ‘no,’ though.”
Harby was drawn to issues affecting community colleges from an early age after serving on Catlin High School’s student council and then on DACC’s.
As a DACC student he recalls seeing a photo of Elmer Smith, the college’s first board president, and others hanging in the administration building.
“I remember seeing their pictures and I said, ‘I want to do that someday; I want to be on that board.”
And while Harby is unashamed in his support of Danville’s college, he said he realizes the ICCTA chairman’s position goes beyond individual interests — and comes at a time when community college’s face historical funding issues.
“I’m a DACC trustee and resident of Vermilion County first,” he said, “but I was elected to represent the entire state. I just feel blessed to have the opportunity.”
