Former Ottawa Mayor Robert Eschbach receives 2024 Simon-Edgar Award

August 06, 2024

CARBONDALE, Ill. - Former Ottawa Mayor Robert Eschbach was selected as the recipient of the 2024 Paul Simon-Jim Edgar Statesmanship Award for his more than two decades of visionary, practical and effective leadership as mayor and his continuing work to make his community strong, vibrant and optimistic.

Eschbach served as mayor of Ottawa, Illinois, from 1999 to 2019.

Former Illinois Gov. Jim Edgar and John Shaw, the director of Southern Illinois University Carbondale's Paul Simon Public Policy Institute, announced Eschbach's selection today, Aug. 6, at the annual dinner of the Edgar Fellows program in Champaign.

"At a time in which there is great frustration about politics at the national level and considerable fear about politics in the international arena, it's important to recognize that energetic and positive leadership is happening in towns and cities across Illinois," Edgar said. "Mayor Eschbach has been a consequential leader in his community, combining a long-term vision with the practical skills needed to bring people together and get results. The mayor united his community, and together they have revived and rebuilt Ottawa."

"Mayor Eschbach's leadership has been important and inspiring. He helped transform his city," Shaw said. "Those who have worked closely with him marvel at his kindness, humor, optimism and drive - and his ability to close deals. Even after retiring as mayor, he has displayed remarkable leadership and civic commitment as a private citizen."

Eschbach is a native of Ottawa. He attended Illinois Valley College and graduated from Illinois State University. He earned a law degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

He returned to Ottawa after law school, volunteering on projects related to environmental protection, historic preservation, and downtown and neighborhood revitalization.

He served on the city's plan commission, zoning board and historic preservation commission before he was elected mayor in 1999.

When he became mayor, Ottawa was struggling with job loss and a badly deteriorating downtown. Eschbach helped draft a comprehensive plan in 1999, the first in Ottawa's history, and later submitted a revised plan that won the 2016 American Planning Association's Daniel Burnham Award for Outstanding Comprehensive Plan. He also worked with colleagues on a floodplain plan that earned national awards.

He led a successful citywide effort to attract jobs, revitalize downtown, develop the riverfront, beautify the city and sponsor a wide array of festivals and cultural events.

The America in Bloom organization recognized Ottawa in 2013 with a special award for the "most dramatic transformation of a downtown streetscape."

Eschbach's contribution to Ottawa was described clearly by the city's former chief engineer Dave Noble: "The mayor had a vision of what he wanted the city to become, and he clearly articulated that vision and encouraged people to adopt to that. And that vision is contagious and excited people and makes them want to be here."

In his final State of the City address, Eschbach thanked the hundreds of volunteers who worked with him to revive and renew Ottawa. "We are all ordinary people working together to accomplish extraordinary things. And we may have different titles and stations in life, we all share in a common heritage of self-government, and we all share in probably the most precious of titles - that of citizen," he said.

He was a founding member of the Starved Rock Country Community Foundation and serves on a number of boards including Landmarks Illinois, the Ottawa Reddick Mansion Association, The Canal Connector organization, Valley Immigrant Advocates, Ottawa Historical and Scouting Heritage Museum, and Ottawa Center for the Arts.

The annual Simon-Edgar Statesmanship Award is presented to an elected state or local government official in Illinois who has demonstrated a pattern of public service characterized by vision, courage, compassion, effectiveness, civility and bipartisanship. The Simon-Edgar Award shines a spotlight on remarkable leadership that is taking place in our state and our communities, inspiring current and future public servants to act in the best traditions of Illinois.

Edgar, the 38th governor of Illinois, founded the Edgar Fellows Program at the University of Illinois's Institute of Government and Public Affairs. Shaw is the director of SIU Carbondale's Paul Simon Public Policy Institute.

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