Charles "Chuck" Sauber

In one sense, Charles "Chuck" Sauber didn't get far in life. Born on April 16, 1920, he's still living in the farmhouse his grandfather built in tiny Virgil, IL, west of Chicago.

And the world headquarters of Sauber Manufacturing Co. the firm he founded, is the much-remodeled barn his grandfather erected next to the house in the 1800s.

"Where my father and I milked cows, my family and employees are producing goods of a different kind, putting innovations into hardware and electric and telephone utilities," he wrote in his book, You May Not Like It, But You're a Lot Like Me: The Journey of a Common Man. The debt-free firm now employs more than 100 people.

If Chuck hasn't strayed far from his roots, he has nevertheless had an impact on tens of thousands of people all over the U.S. and beyond. But the daily communicant takes no credit for any of it.

Chuck and his wife Lorraine were blessed with 16 children and more than 60 years of marriage before she passed away. He gives her credit for their large family, explaining: "It's hard to tell a pretty wife no." Today their legacy includes 47 grandchildren (as of December 2009) and a growing brood of great-grandchildren. But his positive influence on other people does not end with his substantial family. The list includes the many people who have worked and still work for Sauber Manufacturing. They are, he insists, the secret to the firm's extraordinary success. (When he and Lorraine celebrated their 80th birthdays and 60th wedding anniversary in 1990, their guest list of family and friends was so large they had to rent the student union at Northern Illinois University.)

"I met Chuck when he was appointed to the Rockford Diocese's Diocesan Pastoral Council several years ago," says Dr. Owen Phelps, Director of the Yeshua Institute. "Immediately I was struck by his wisdom and his curiosity. You could tell that he was not only devoted to continuous learning, but also that he was focused on using what he has learned over his long lifetime to serve others. He is the epitome of a Jesus-like leader, and I continue to be inspired by him every time we get together."

Phelps was pursuing his doctoral degree in administration/management at the time, and he recalls: "Every time I had a chance to visit with Chuck, I found out that he was already employing some principle that I had just discovered in my studies. It was amazing. While I was studying the best leadership and management methods, he was actually living and employing them."

Chuck didn't come by his approach to leadership in a classroom. His formal education ended with high school. Nonetheless, he has more than 50 patents to his name — although he credits the Holy Spirit for each and every one of them. After all, he reasons, the ideas he gets have to come from somewhere, and ultimately everything comes from God.

His company started in 1953, and shipped its first product in 1955, after which he received several more patents but still earned most of his income working for others. Finally he got his "big break" when the owner of a grain elevator where had been working for 16 years fired him. With 15 children to feed (one died shortly after birth), Chuck didn't have any opportunity to feel sorry for himself. "Losing my job was very scary at the time but turned out to be a blessing in disguise," he says now. He accepted another job working as a salesman on straight commission and did well at it, but he knew he had to take a more drastic step if he was to meet his obligations as a father and a husband. In 1968 he incorporated Sauber Manufacturing Co. and started working for himself full-time.

Today Chuck's son Jim runs the company as its president, and several of his descendants are employed by it. Meanwhile, in 1996, in the full flower of their youth at 76 years of age, Chuck and Lorraine launched The We Cousins Company to give all 47 of their grandchildren "a mutual interest and purpose in keeping together" after they are gone. Its first product was the Confidence Coin, designed to remind everyone that "no matter who we are or what we have done, God always loves us."

That's the message Chuck's life has been radiating for nearly a century.