O'Fallon Community Foundation

Current Foundation Board Members
	Jeanette Koechner, President		John Griesenauer
	Pat Swinger, Vice President		Gerald Hurlbert
	Dennis Maher, Treasurer		Donald Schappe
	Darrell Mueller, Secretary		Wendy Prakop
	Raleigh Jessup		Shelly Schneider
Advisory Board Members
Tom Ginnever                           Dan McAteer                      Petra Rodgers
Building Committee
Jerry Hurlbert     Charles Brunjes     Craig Giesmann
Tim Kilby     Dennis Maher      Darrell Mueller      Rich Schultz

Raleigh Jessup

RaleighJessup, Board Member and pre-eminent citizen of the City of O'Fallon,passed away on January 9, 2009 at the age of eighty-six. Known as both"Mr. O'Fallon" and "Mr. History," Raleigh will long be remembered forhis service to the community he adopted when he and his wife, Betty,moved to O'Fallon in 1947.

Raleigh's passion for the preservation of O'Fallon's history beganwith his involvement in the city's Centennial celebration in 1956. In1974, he was principal in the founding of the O'Fallon HistoricalSociety and for the next few years worked side by side with BillWesthoff in moving a log home located at the corner of Hwy K andVeteran's Memorial Parkway to a new location in Civic Park to becomethe organization's headquarters.

In 1973 Raleigh was elected to the Board of Alderman and served a totalof ten years, though he will most often be remembered for his continuedefforts toward the reconstruction of Jacob Zumwalt's homestead fort. Inthe late 1980s, Raleigh used a portion of the last remaining log toconstruct a scale model of the Fort and hundreds of area schoolchildren were introduced to their community's history as Raleighvisited classrooms and scout groups. His passion for the fort stems inpart from his dedication to his church. Cornerstone United MethodistChurch is the fourth generation congregation of the Mount Zion Societythat started in Jacob's log home.

Everyone who was blessed to work with Raleigh had a deepappreciation for his conciliatory nature, his earnest desire for peopleto work--and disagree--respectfully, his ability to preserve historywhile keeping an eye on the city's future. Even in adversity, heremained grateful for the blessings and opportunities offered by hiscountry and city. We will miss him greatly.

He is preceded in death by his beloved wife, Betty, and we at theFoundation wish to extend our heartfelt sympathies to their threechildren; sons Ken and David, and daughter, Shirley and their families.