Brolley retires June 30

By John Cheli, Bonnie Hall & Mia Mazzorana IV Leader Staff

After a 34-year long career at IVCC, Fran Brolley is stepping down from his position as Executive Director of Community Relations and Development.

Fran Brolley’s personal involvement with IVCC began in 1988 as a newspaper reporter at the News Tribune where he covered the IVCC board. The story spurred his interest in the school and led him to apply for the job, where he was appointed as Assistant Director of Public Information starting in August of 1988.

The school has tied together the community of LaSalle and helped propel students into hundreds of fields.

Judy Day, who is also retiring this year, agrees with Fran and had this to say about the school and its success.

“IVCC is the center of the valley, the go-to place for folks to come together for community events, and cultural events.” members attended IVCC. So that was probably the highlight of my career that evening and just the week before Thanksgiving in 2015.”

Over the course of his career, Brolley’s contributions have been noted by many students, staff and community.

President Jerry Corcoran is also retiring, and shared his experience working with Brolley over the years.

- Hope Beelman of Peru earned third place in Front Page Design; honorable mention in Headline writing; third place for Sports Photo; third place for Editorial

- Noah Simon of Princeton received first place for Sports Story

- Nyah Nowakowski of Utica garnered second place for Sports Story; third place for Sports Feature

- Nathan Orlandi of Ottawa earned second place for Sports Story

- Drake Weber of Peru received second place for Sports Feature Farrell is editor for the 2022-2023 school year. Beelman was editor during 2021-2022. The contest included issues published from January through December 2022.

Brolley is a long-time member of the IVCC staff and has upheld the Brolley legacy over his 34 year long career at the college. The Brolley legacy began with his father, Ray Brolley, attending and teaching at IVCC when it was LPO Junior College.

When questioned about the Brolley legacy Fran stated, “We have had a long stretch, maybe... 70 years.”

This long standing legacy has been accompanied by many IVCC accomplishments that Brolley has contributed to.

Fran commented on what his personal success and accomplishments during his time at IVCC meant to him.

“I just think of some of the connections we made with some of our alumni and in the community as well,” he began.

“The college is, you know it’s fantastic. It has so many success stories What a collection of individuals we have here that come to our campus every day to learn and to help teach us as well. It's an amazing place to work.”

Brolley also reflected on some of his proudest contributions to the college. He spoke of the donations and gifts that IVCC has received, and being able to tell the IVCC story through thousands of press releases.

“I’m happy about that, being that kind of voice for IVCC,” he said.

Among these moments, Brolley described one event in particular that stuck with him throughout his career, the establishment of IVCC’s Hall of Fame which honored about 75 individuals and teams. It also honored his father who was inducted along with Fran’s long time friend, alumnus and IVCC donor, Ralph Scriba.

“It was just a great treasure of mine, of my life to be able to meet an individual like Ralph when he visited campus. And then Jerry (Corcoran) and I actually flew out to California and spent time with him out there at his beautiful home. So we honored Ralph that night and then we also honored one of ours. It was actually the night we honored Buckacre, a local legendary band whose

Corcoran stated, “He (Fran) has always been here one phone call away. He would drop everything and run through a brick wall for IVCC. So I can’t think of a person that I’ve ever met who’s been in a position to have a greater impact on the college than Fran has. He’s honest, he's sincere, he's personable, he is approachable I think it's because of his grit and determination and his hard work ethic that we have been able to accomplish everything that we have in his office. But we could have the same office and somebody else in there, and I don't think they would be able to do it as well as Fran.”

Brolley has been a crucial member of the Illinois Valley Community College institution and has dedicated his career to improving the quality of the IVCC experience.

Post-retirement, Brolley plans to work with Starved Rock country Community Foundation in order to continue the work that he has accomplished for a different institution with similar missions to that of IVCC.