By Jamie Kelly
The Gazette

You have a shiny new BlackBerry, iPhone or other smartphone. But you need to be careful – the thing you bought to keep you connected could end up separating you from your co-workers.

People get into trouble using smartphones during meetings when they don’t know the corporate culture, according to Deanna Hurst, director of human resources at the Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa.

Deanna Hurst, UI Tippie College of Business

“The best bet is to turn it off and put it away,” she said.

Pam Tbrdy, manager of media relations at Rockwell-Collins in Cedar Rapids, said she tries to strike a fine balance.

Because she deals with reporters from all over who need information quickly, she’s constantly checking her BlackBerry. But, she said, she knows she shouldn’t be doing that during meetings.

“It’s challenging,” she said.

She’s found the best policy for her is to either turn off or leave behind her BlackBerry for some meetings. That way, temptation is removed.

Deborah Rinner, Tero International

The people running important meetings can help their own communication, too, said Deborah Rinner, director of international protocol and corporate etiquette at Tero International in Des Moines.

The meeting leader should make his or her expectations clear, she said, and ask people to turn off their phones and put them away. Then they can give people a break every 60 to 90 minutes to stretch and to check their messages.

Usually, even the most urgent messages can wait the hour that most meetings take, Hurst said.

And, if you’re expecting one you can’t wait for, tell the meeting organizer you might have to step out to respond. That way, she said, you’re being respectful of the others in the meeting.

And although you might think you’re being sly by sitting quietly and checking your BlackBerry, you’re not.

“It’s not as inconspicuous as people think,” Hurst said.

Larry Horbach has decided to close his family's furniture store in Toledo to go into the insurance business. Photo by Dave Rasdal.

By Dave Rasdal
The Gazette

TOLEDO — “Sold” signs hang on sofas and chairs at Horbach Furniture, signifying more than one or two pieces moving out the door. This is a “Going Out of Business” sale, one that brings an end to the store that has served the Tama-Toledo area for 43 years.

It ended with an auction last weekend to liquidate all inventory.

“I’m ready for a change,” says owner Larry Horbach, 45, as he rests for a moment on an unsold sofa. “I want to provide a different service to this community.”

So, after 30 years in the family’s furniture business, as the last to leave it, Larry will sell insurance.

That’s not so unusual when you learn that his family has followed that path — mother, Verlene, in it for 20 years in Toledo, older brothers Lon and Lance in it for 16 years and 12 years, respectfully — in other areas of Iowa.

“Everybody needs insurance,” Larry says. “Furniture isn’t always at the top of your list.”

Still, for 43 years, Horbach Furniture in Toledo provided a good living for the family. The father, Ron, opened it in 1965 after growing up in the family’s Grundy Center furniture business. Lon, Lance and Larry began as delivery boys, and all had a financial interest at one time or another. Ron is the only one left in furniture, selling it to stores in the Dallas, Texas, area for nearly 27 years.

The Horbach Funiture Store building. Photo by Dave Rasdal.

Now that Horbach Furniture has closed, the Tama-Toledo area, which once had five furniture stores, is left with only a rent-to-own store.

“I’d love to see another furniture store come in here,” says Larry, surrounded by the wide-open space and the original tall tin ceiling of the two-story Masonic Temple building erected in 1898. The Masons met upstairs until a decade or so ago when they moved to Tama, selling that portion of the building to Larry.

Larry tried to sell the business, but nobody could come up with the money. He’s tried to sell the building, too, but so far has had only lookers.

The market — about a 40-mile radius — is still viable, Larry says.

“The biggest challenge would be competing with the bigger stores (in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids),” Larry says. “I can compete with Marshalltown, no problem.”

But, for Larry and his family — wife Chris, who works for the Iowa Department of Human Services, and children Abby, 19, and Brandon, 16 — it’s time for a change.

After statewide training, Larry will take over his mother’s State Farm Insurance agency upon her retirement Jan. 1. And he’s not going far — that office is next door.

© Gazette Communications 2009

Happy birthday, Cloris Leachman!

Oscar- and Emmy Award-winning actress Cloris Leachman/AP photo

Cloris Leachman, the Energizer Bunny of  Hollywood octogenarians, celebrates her 83rd birthday Thursday, April 30.

Leachman, whose autobiography, “Cloris”, was released March 31, is a native of  Des Moines.

In her book, Leachman mentions encounters with two other stars who passed through Des Moines on their way to fame:

• When she was in her teens, Leachman worked at the same radio station as sportscaster Ronald “Dutch” Reagan. At the time, she thought he was a square. Years later, when they worked together in New York, she found him to be quite gallant.
• She’s known singer Andy Williams, an Iowa native, since they were 8. In fact, his aunt was her piano teacher.

Leachman coming to Des Moines

Leachman will present her stage show, “Cloris!”, at 4 p.m. Sunday, May 10, at the Greater Civic Center of Des Moines, 221 Walnut St. Tickets are $47.50 and $62.50 through Civic Center Ticket Office, (515) 246-2300, or www.civiccenter.org

Fun fact

Leachman’s mother-in-law was actress Mabel Albertson, who played Darrin’s mother on “Bewitched.”

By Dave Rasdal
The Gazette

CEDAR RAPIDS — In a couple of weeks, Jon Reynolds will fly from Cedar Rapids to Bahrain to visit his good buddy Crown Prince Shaikh Salman Bin Hamad Al Khalifa. They’ll celebrate the 10th anniversary of the birth of an extraordinary college scholarship program.

Jon Reynolds of Cedar Rapids holds a magazine cover of his good friend, Salman Al Khalifa, the crown prince of Bahrain, whom Jon worked with to establish a unique college education program whereby Bahrain high school graduates can qualify for all-expense paid educations in the United States or the United Kingdom. Photo by Dave Rasdal.

“I call him Shaikh,” John says with a laugh. “I was the crown prince’s counselor. I knew him when he was 14.”

The crown prince is now 39, commander-in-chief of the Bahrain Defense Force and a genuine believer in the value of an excellent education for his country’s best students.

In fact, the crown prince’s International Scholarship Program spends $3 million annually to provide 10 new students per year all-expense-paid college educations for up to six years.

Figure it out. If 60 students are in the program at one time, that’s up to $50,000 per year per student for everything from tuition and books to living expenses and occasional trips back home.

“I think it’s the most wonderful program in the world,” Jon says.

But how did Jon, 72, who grew up in Sigourney and graduated from Cornell College in Mount Vernon, become friends with a crown prince and get the call to help set up such a program?

Well, that story goes back to 1964. Jon was teaching English, theater and speech in Jesup when he learned about overseas teaching opportunities through the University of Northern Iowa. That fall, he found himself in Dreux, France, as a houseparent at a boarding school operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.

For the next 40 years, Jon would live, teach and counsel students in France, Turkey, Spain and Bahrain. It was an unbelievable career for an Iowa boy who knows, firsthand, not only the value of his own education but the value of providing solid educations to young people.

In 1973, John returned to UNI for a break. That summer, as he counseled, researched and attended school, he met his wife, Jean, a Springville native and elementary teacher. They married that year and went to Turkey, Spain, and, in 1983, Bahrain, an Arabic island country in the Persian Gulf.

Jon had heard that defense department educators were being asked to staff a private international school for the Bahrain International School Association. It seemed the opportunity of a lifetime.

Jon became a counselor (middle-school students at first, later juniors and seniors) while Jean taught elementary students in one of the newest, most advanced schools in the world. Tuition ranges from $14,000 to $22,000 per year. Students representing 50 nationalities come from among the 400 wealthiest families in the world.

Jon, of course, counseled the crown prince. And in 1999, the crown prince called Jon to help formulate the college scholarship program.

Each year, maybe 300 students, all in the top 3 percent of their classes, apply. They are required to write essays, perform at least 20 hours of community service and complete a course in critical thinking.

“Students are not only encouraged, but pushed, to question everything and anything,” Jon says. “They don’t take anything for granted.”

Finalists are whittled down through tests and interviews in front of international panels until only the best of the best remain.

“It’s strictly based on merit,” Jon says. “That’s the beauty of it.”

The students attend the best universities in the United Kingdom and the United States, often Ivy League schools. One student graduated from Drake University in Des Moines with five majors.

Jon, since retiring in 2004 and returning to Eastern Iowa, remains active with the scholarship program. In fact, he hosts high school students who leave Bahrain to attend prep schools in the United States.

“Not only do I want to see the crown prince again,” Jon says of his upcoming trip. “The new student who’s coming to prep school in the United States will be there. I’ll be able to meet him and his parents.”

© Gazette Communications 2009

Runners leave the blocks during the men's 400-meter special invitational at the 99th Annual Drake Relays at Drake Stadium on Apr. 26, 2008, in Des Moines. Photo by Jim Slosiarek.

By Chuck Schoffner
News correspondent

DES MOINES — William Howard Taft was president, the U.S. flag had only 46 stars and baseball pitcher Cy Young won his 500th game.

The year was 1910 and April 23 roughly 100 fans braved wind and snow to watch a track meet organized by John L. Griffith, the athletics director, football coach and track coach at Drake University.

Griffith put on the Drake Relay Carnival to try to get athletes interested in track earlier in the season. Some may joke the weather hasn’t changed markedly since then, but Griffith’s little meet certainly has.

The Drake Relays has become one of the country’s premier track meets and it’s being run for
the 100th time this weekend. From a handful of events — there were 11 that first year — the meet has expanded to this year’s 113, ranging from a shuttle relay for elementary school kids to a master’s pole vault.

Fewer than 100 athletes competed in the first Drake Relays. This year’s meet, which began April 23 with the decathlon and heptathlon, has drawn nearly 7,400, including 42 Olympians.

The meet’s April 25 Saturday session has sold out since 1966 and an estimated 2.3 million fans have attended the event through the years. Those fans have seen athletes set 35 world records.

For Des Moines, it’s a community institution. Area residents volunteer to help Drake administrators with everything from driving athletes to the stadium to recruiting and training officials.

“It’s got a tremendous hold on the public,” said Drake historian Paul Morrison, who is attending his 71st Relays this week. “Barnum and Bailey were wrong. This is ‘The Greatest Show on Earth,’ as far as I’m concerned.”

Even in its early years, the Drake Relays was recognized as a top-notch meet. Amos Alonzo Stagg, the noted football coach, said after working as the referee in 1914 that the Relays “has become among the most important events of its kind in the nation.” Notre Dame’s Knute Rockne later called it “the best meet I have ever seen.”

The 1957 Drake Relays was the first event televised on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.” ESPN2 will tape this year’s Saturday events and show them Sunday.

For many Drake alums, the Relays, not a football game, is celebrated as homecoming, though it’s often a tossup as to which is the more popular venue: the stadium or a local watering hole called Peggy’s.

While the Relays built its foundation on college and university teams — the meet has hosted 365 schools its first 99 years — high school athletes have been competing since 1911 and the meet features invitational events showcasing Olympic-level athletes.

Brian Brown, the Relays director, understands the emotional aspect of his meet. Still the meet record holder in the invitational high jump, Brown remembers the feeling that swept over him the first time he walked into the stadium as an athlete.

“The crowd, it was a Saturday, it was a sellout, it was an amazing atmosphere,” he said. “As I was walking down the track and was heading north, somebody did something amazing and the crowd just roared. You knew you were in a special place. I got the connection that now, as a director, I want everybody to feel.”

It’s a connection that’s lasted a full century now — and just might continue for another.

© Gazette Communications 2009

Cloris Leachman dances back into spotlight

This is Cloris Leachman’s moment. And the 82-year-old actress and Iowa native is making the most of it.

Among her recent forays into the spotlight is her autobiography, which was released last week. In “Cloris,” co-written by her ex-husband, the Academy Award-winning actress describes her childhood in Des Moines, her colorful career, famous people she knew and worked with (Marlon Brando, Paul Newman, Ronald Reagan and Jackie Kennedy among them) and her “epic” affair with actor Gene Hackman.

Leachman’s career comeback received a huge kick last fall when she lasted seven weeks as the oldest contestant on “Dancing With the Stars.” View the video here. (The youngest contestant, by the way, is Olympic gold medalist Shawn Johnson, 17, of West Des Moines, competing this season.)

Since then, the spotlight rarely has been off Leachman.

In January, she was grand marshal of the Rose Parade.

In February, she was the object of Jack Black’s desire in a movie within an episode of “The Office.”

In March, she took on the role of PETA poster gal, posing in a gown made of head lettuce and red cabbage for an ad stating, “Let Vegetarianism Grow on You.”  (A vegetarian for four decades, she posed for the cover of Alternative Medicine Digest in 1997, her naked body painted with images of fruit.)

On May 10, she will perform her biographical show, “Cloris!”,  at the Civic Center of Greater Des Moines. The 4 p.m. performance will be a benefit for her alma mater, Roosevelt High School.

Leachman was born in Des Moines on April 26, 1926.

While she is best known today for comedy (”The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” “Young Frankenstein,” “High Anxiety”), Leachman received her Academy Award as best supporting actress in a dramatic role, playing a lonely, middle-aged wife who has an affair with a high school student in 1971’s “The Last Picture Show.”

A steadily employed performer in television since the days of live drama in the 1950s,  Leachman has won nine Emmy Awards, more than any other performer. She is the only actress to have won five Emmys in five categories.

While she has been playing it for laughs in her comeback, she has serious roles in her future, including the movie “Inglorious Basterds” (yep, the word is misspelled on purpose) starring Brad Pitt and directed by Quentin Tarantino.

And then there is “The Story of Bonnie and Clyde.” The Neshoba Democrat in Pennsylvania reports that Leachman has signed on to play Clyde Barrow’s mama in the movie, which will be filmed in Philadelphia and Neshoba County. Playing Bonnie will be Hilary Duff, according to the report.

Fun facts

In 1961, Leachman did a guest shot on “The Donna Reed Show.” Reed, a Denison native, is the only other Iowan to win an Academy Award. (Best supporting actress, “From Here to Eternity,” 1953)

In 1986, Leachman took over as the lead of the TV show “The Facts of Life” when Charlotte Rae (Mrs. Garrett), left the series. Leachman and Rae were classmates at Northwestern University.

Did you know

Leachman was Miss Chicago in 1946, which led to her being a contestant in the Miss America pageant.

Leachman was the mother in “Lassie” in the 1957-58 TV season.

The Iowa state capitol building is a majestic presence in downtown Des Moines. But this capital city is about more than just legislation and government, it's beautiful vistas, hot entertainment and culture. / Photo courtesy Greater Des Moines Convention & Visitors Bureau

By B.J. Smith
For iowa.com

Geographically speaking, Des Moines is what you might call the 800-pound gorilla of Polk County.  It takes up the most space and is pretty difficult to ignore.

The capital city also has lots of great things going for it.  Fine arts, fine dining, a thriving downtown core and good business climate. The Greater Des Moines area has more than 100 miles of trails, and Des Moines was named Iowa’s best “walking city” by Prevention magazine. The second-best walking city and another major presence is right next door – West Des Moines.

Polk County – named for U.S. President James K. Polk (1845-1849) – has many other thriving communities, each with their own unique character. Windsor Heights makes the most of being surrounded entirely by Des Moines, West Des Moines, Clive and Urbandale by declaring itself  “the heart of it all.” Pleasant Hill sits on Des Moines’ eastern edge within minutes of the State Capitol and downtown.

The other sizeable population centers of Altoona,  Ankeny and Johnston are home to thousands who work in Des Moines, but each of them boasts substantial success at attracting businesses themselves.

Pretty much any spot in Polk County is within easy driving distance of one of the state’s biggest lakes and tourist attractions: Saylorville Lake.  It’s popular with day visitors and overnight campers alike for fishing, swimming, trail activities, numerous picnic areas and shelters, and disc golf. Nearby is another fun recreation spot: Big Creek Lake State Park.  The Des Moines and Raccoon Rivers and various city and county parks provide plenty of additional recreational opportunities.

For small town living within a short drive of big-city attractions, Polk County offers little Polk City (right by Saylorville Lake), Alleman, Elkhart,  Runnells, Mitchellville,  Bondurant and Grimes. It shares roughly half of Sheldahl with Story County to the north, and part of Carlisle spills over into Warren County to the south.

Also check out our iGuide and these other links:

• Juice
• Downtown Des Moines

Sources: Greater Des Moines Convention and Visitors Bureau, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Polk County.

Cities in Polk County

Alleman pop. 439
Altoona pop. 13301
Ankeny pop. 36161
Bondurant pop. 2951
Clive pop. 14125
Des Moines pop. 198682
Elkhart pop. 362
Grimes pop. 5862
Johnston pop. 13596
Mitchellville pop. 2032
Pleasant Hill pop. 6961
Polk City pop. 2872
Runnells pop. 352
Sheldahl pop. 336
Urbandale pop. 35904
West Des Moines pop. 51744
Windsor Heights pop. 4891

Source: Iowa League of Cities