Dick Chappell led the River Forest Community Center as its executive director for 40 years. While he was ready to retire, he was still surprised on May 15 to learn that that was his last day as executive director.
Driving in to work that day from his home in northwest Indiana, Chappell, who had announced his retirement, knew that the Community Center had hired his replacement: Oak Park and River Forest High School District 200 school board member Jonathan Livingston.
Chappell anticipated staying on briefly to aid in the transition. However, on arriving he found an email from Anne Dwyer Wohlford, the new chairperson of the Community Center, informing him that that day, May 15, was going to his last day and he was to turn in his keys.
“At a minimum it’s disappointing but on the other hand I fully recognize that the board can do what they choose,” Chappell told the Wednesday Journal.
Dwyer Wohlford had just replaced longtime Community Board Center chairperson George Vukotich, who had resigned from the board in response to some differences with board members.
It was a bit of an awkward ending to Chappell’s 40 years of leading the Community Center. Chappell, 70, was hired as the executive director in 1986, when the center was housed in a former public works garage at 414 Jackson Ave. The Community Center had fewer than 10 employees when he was hired, Chappell recalled.
Chappell, who grew up in the small town of Griffin, Indiana, was working as the superintendent of parks and recreation in Highland, Indiana when he saw the job posting and decided to apply.
Little did he know that he would spend the next 40 years of life working in River Forest.
“I had no timetable,” Chappell said.
Over the last four decades Chappell has led the Community Center as it grew and expanded its services, especially its early learning and childcare program. In 1993 the center took root in the River Forest Civic Center Building which was purchased in a public partnership, mostly funded by a $1.9 state grant.
“The Community Center and its programs and services was the viability of the project,” Chappell said. “What I mean by that is the state was not going to fund a vacant building.”
Now the Community Center has more than 30 employees and had approximately 50 employees before COVID and disputes with River Forest Township caused some shrinkage.
In addition to its childcare program the gym in the Civic Center is used for adult and kids sports activities by groups that paid fees to the Community Center but now contract directly with the Civic Center Authority.
The controversial last year
The last year has been difficult for Chappell and the Community Center.
In 2025, the Civic Center Board of Managers, which is made up of the River Forest Township Board, moved to take control of the management of the center and of its subleasing role.
At one point the Board of Managers had voted to terminate the Community Center’s lease claiming that the center had violated the provisions of its lease by subletting portions of the building without the approval of the Civic Center Authority. Traditionally the Community Center had managed the building and sublet space it did not use. For about 15 years Chappell was also paid by the township to manage the building.
Finally late last year, after months of acrimony, contentious negotiations, and a few crowded and emotional public meetings, the Civic Center Authority and Community Center agreed on a new lease that keeps the Community Center in its longtime home, for now at least.
Chappell said that the tumultuous year was a significant factor in his decision to retire as was the changes in who manages the building and who deals with the sublessors.
“It did influence things, without a doubt,” Chappell said.
And it seems as if many on the Community Center’s board thought that it was time for the Community Center to have new leadership as it moves into a different future.
Chappell also said that his desire to have more free time to visit his adult daughters, one of whom lives in Texas, also played a role in his decision to retire.
40 years of accomplishments
Chappell is proud of the work he did leading the Community Center.
“I can look myself in the mirror because you know what I feel that we’ve made a lot of progress from an organizational standpoint as the Community Center, and I look at the programs we’ve expanded into, I look at the number of people that we served over all the years and there’s just a tremendous amount of positives,” Chappell said.
Chappell was something of a hands off leader, especially in regard to the early childhood program.
“He was a good support person,” said Lia Madonia-Garcia, who has directed the Community Center’s early childhood program for the past 28 years. “He never micromanaged; he allowed us to be creative with our program and let it thrive as we saw fit.”
The Community Center has a number of employees who have worked there for decades and Chappell was popular with both employees and users of the center.
“He was very easy to get along with, funny,” Madonia-Garcia said. “He had a very infectious laugh. We would try to make him laugh all the time just to crack up at his laugh.”
“In a lot of respects Dick was the Community Center,” Vukotich, the former chairperson, said.
In a written summary of his time at the Community Center, Chappell highlighted the center’s adaptability and resiliency over the years and thanked all those who he worked with.
“In closing I would like to thank the Community Center’s program participants, staff and board members for their support during the past 40 years and am extremely grateful for the opportunity to lead the Community Center during this time,” Chappell wrote. “The Community Center has some excellent staff and board members and I am optimistic the Community Center will continue to be resilient and remain a vital and important resource for the community well into the future.”
In retirement Chappell will spend a lot of time on baseball diamonds. In college Chappell was an all-conference right fielder for North Carolina State, where he hit over .300 and played on two conference championship teams. He has played baseball his entire life and still plays baseball three times a week in adult leagues. He is a player/manager for the Chicago Woodpeckers and still typically plays the outfield despite having three rotator cuff surgeries.
“I still enjoy it,” Chappell said of playing baseball at age 70.