By Chris Faulkner
Jerry Rigdon has served in many different roles in his 86 years.
He’s been a business owner, a professional window cleaner, an artist, a pastor, and even the mayor, as well as his various family roles.
But one thing that can tie all those things together is that Rigdon is an Optimist (little ‘o’ as well as big ‘O’).
Rigdon came to Burlington in 1967 from his hometown of Dunkerton. He opened Brite-Way window cleaning service and kept working there several years after selling the business to Richard Luckinbill.
He had been a charter member of the Dunkerton Lions Club but never found time to go to the meetings.
However, seven years after arriving in Burlington, he was recruited to be a charter member of the Optimist Club.
“They needed 32 people to charter, and I was No. 32,” Rigdon said, finishing with the infectious laugh that follows many of his stories.
More than 32 started the club, and it was there he first heard the Optimist creed.
“Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind,” Rigdon quoted one of the 10 lines of the creed. “Promise to talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
“I just fell in love with that,” Rigdon said. “It’s reinforcing on a weekly basis the attitude to have.”
From there, he said, he developed this mantra: “Expect to give and receive joy every day.”
He added, to anyone listening, “I expect you to do that too.”
The club meets at noon each Thursday at Happy Joe’s. As with many service clubs, attendance and overall membership are down.
“At one time, we had 71 or 72 members,” Rigdon said, noting there are now 39 members.
“In the past, major industries like G.E. wanted their people to be involved in service clubs,” Rigdon said. “Now, that’s passed. That doesn’t happen anymore.”
The Business Owner
As a young adult in the 1960s, Rigdon was a journeyman carpenter making $4.65 an hour. One of his brothers worked at a factory for $3.50 an hour.
But another brother became a window cleaner, and Rigdon and the other sibling found out he got paid by a business owner $12 for a job that took 15-20 minutes.
“The owner offered to show (my brother) how to do it for $500, but he didn’t have $500,” Rigdon said. So Rigdon loaned his brother the $500, learned the skill himself, and said, “I can do this.”
He then headed to Burlington and started the Brite-Way business.
He formed many a close bond with his customers, and one woman even asked him to give her eulogy when the time came. A reluctant and nervous Rigdon agreed and later honored his client.
The Artist
Rigdon’s living room has many paintings and photographs that he has done, as well as other art items he has purchased.
He was a board member of the Art Center and taught art there. Lois, his wife of 65 years, was director of the Art Center for 25 years.
“My father drew,” Rigdon said, of where he got the talent. “My oldest brother could draw like an angel. We sat around in the wintertime and drew pictures.
“I wasn’t a good athlete. I wasn’t the smartest kid in the class. But my ability to draw and do art gave me a place to stand out in this small little school.” His graduating class at Dunkerton was only 26 students.
He would later pass on his skills to other budding artists, with this perspective:
“Whether it’s teaching art or Bible studies, I would say, ‘I want you to know that this effort here is all about me, and hopefully, I can make it all about you.’ ”
Rigdon joined the Asbury United Methodist Church, and later in his life, he served eight years as a licensed pastor.
The Mayor
Rigdon will gladly tell you, “What I knew about city government, you could write a really, really short paragraph.”
He only served two years as mayor of Burlington — and not because of any groundswell of community support.
Rigdon had been elected to the Burlington City Council in 1983, and when it came time to pick the mayor, he said, “Two other city council members came to me and said, ‘We don’t want to be mayor, but those other two guys have been.’ So that’s how I got the job, by default.”
To this day, Rigdon still thinks the city’s residents should pick the mayor.
At the time, the federal government wanted to build a special facility for building atomic weapons in Amarillo, Texas, as part of President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative.
But the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant had assembled atomic weapons until 1976, so that was an option.
Rigdon had been mayor for all of 21 days when he was approached by a journalist.
Recounting the experience, Rigdon said: “An AP reporter called me and said, ‘What do you think of assembling atomic weapons in Burlington?’ ”
“I knew something was going on, housing and all that stuff. But they were never going to do it here anyway, but I didn’t know that. I said, ‘I’m opposed to building weapons in Burlington, Rocky Flats, Moscow, Russia, and Amarillo, Texas,’ ” said Rigdon.
He continued, “The next day, the Des Moines Register had a story that read, ‘Mayor of Burlington against $1.5 million weapons facility.’ (The Chamber) went bonkers. They came to me and said, ‘You know, Mayor, it’s really not in your jurisdiction.’ ”
So he responded, “Would you have said the same thing if I was in favor of it?”
He ended up being featured on the Good Morning America show. “My 15 minutes of fame,” Rigdon said.
Rigdon fared much better dealing with local matters.
“My definition of a city is ‘reasonable people living together reasonably,’ ” he said.
He had a neighbor whose dog barked all day long. “I confronted the neighbor, talked to them about it, and they remedied the situation,” Rigdon said.
“When I was mayor, people had neighborhood complaints. I tried to get people together to solve the problem at that level.”
There was one resident who worked on cars until 9 p.m.
A neighbor called Rigdon and complained about the noise from the revving of engines.
“We met at city hall,” Rigdon said. “It was Harvey and two of his neighbors. Harvey complained to the man quite a bit, and the guy was absolutely chagrined that he was a bother.”
The result: “He stopped working on cars, which satisfied everybody. It was a win-win situation.
“It’s pushing things to the lowest level to solve the problem,” Rigdon said. “Don’t call the police. Go to the neighbor and just tell them. You’d be surprised.”
One could tell many more stories about Rigdon. He rode in the Register’s Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa for 19 years.
He served on the YMCA Board of Directors back in the 1970s when the new building was being planned.
But it’s enough to say that Rigdon’s optimistic attitude has carried him through most of his life.
“If you can laugh in the face of opposition, humor wins a lot of arguments,” he said.