Retirement on the horizon for Kautzer Spring 2009 - By Joe Stilwell - Photo By Sean Roberts
The deadline for your news package is in one hour. You finally finish. You press record to copy it to your tape, and nothing happens. The involuntary slap of the hard drive immediately follows.
What next?
Call John.
For the last 28 years, whenever a problem arose in either the video or audio production labs, inevitably Production Engineer John Kautzer was called. But Kautzer will be up for retirement on Sept. 15, and the reaction from the Mass Communications Department is poignant. The consensus seems to be that he really is as nice as everyone says.
“He’s the perfect person for that job,” SIUE Professor Tom Atwood said. “He’s one of the nicest guys I know, and he never gets flustered.”
Born in Marshfield, Wisc., Kautzer said he has always had an affinity for the “hands-on” type of classes, such as shop class. That affinity grew in high school, and eventually steered him toward studying engineering at North Central Technical Institute in Wausau, Wisc. Once out of college, he worked at a television station in Wisconsin for three years, and then at another station in Springfield.
“There was a guy who always had his eye out for jobs. He heard about this one, and passed it along to me,” he explained. “I applied, got hired in January 1980, and the rest is history.”
That history has allowed Kautzer to work with the likes of Julius Hunter, Jackie Smith and Steve Jankowski, and also the opportunity to work with thousands of students.
“The neat thing about working here is working with young folks who have no blinders and are open to new ideas. Every year there’s a new group of students who keep me on my toes. Every student is unique,” Kautzer observed.
That is what he will miss about the job, but he does not want to stay too long.
“I’ve seen enough people wait too long to retire, and I don’t want to be one of those people.”
No one wants to see Kautzer leave. No one has anything but high praise for the unflappable production engineer.
“He’s very capable, friendly and a joy to work with,” WSIE Director Frank Akers added.
“Hell of a guy,” Wayne Mills, a production engineer and partner of Kautzer’s, said.
“What I’ll miss most is his competence. He has a lot of know how, and it was nice to know that when I went to him with a question, he would have an answer. I’ve spent my short time here trying to be like him.”
Mills has nothing but great things to say about his counterpart.
“He’s easy to work with, and made me feel extremely comfortable when I first started. I was told when I first started that if I can be like John, I’ll go a long way here. So far that statement has held true,” Mills said.
No matter who you talk to in the Mass Communications Department, and no matter how hard you look, no one has a bad thing to say about Kautzer. When asked about his plans after retirement, he replied like he always does, with a quiet, positive and optimistic tone.
“I have several ideas in mind, but I’ll see what pans out.”