Retirees - 20+ Years of Service

Russell "Gene" Bontjes

Gene was a lifelong Byron resident, born August 14, 1921. He served in the Navy during World War II in the European, American, Pacific and Asiatic theaters.  In the war he was under direct aircraft attack on multiple occasions and had two ships sunk by torpedo beneath him.  These events likely gave him a deep commitment to emergency response that remained with him the rest of his life.

Gene began his association with the Byron Fire Department as fire chief in 1952 and responded to a fire the first night. He served as chief until 1965, then as president of the board of trustees from 1974 to 1991.  Gene was then named honorary chief and had the training site north of Byron on Tower Road named in his honor.  Gene passed away in 2004 and was buried with a fireman's funeral.

When I was asked to provide a short bio of the time I spent in the BFD, my mind just went crazy with all of the stories!  

In 1998 five people, including myself, were asked to take the E.M.T. course at Highland College in Freeport. We all did that and that was the beginning of our history! I still recall a lot of the calls, when I go either north or south on Route 2. Most of the calls were successful, some did not turn out well.

I remember my first ambulance call – we left from the building that is now AERO Ale House! That building was our station!!

In 1982 I was asked to run for the position of trustee! Never did I think I would be a politician! I was lucky to have a lot of support and friends who voted for me. Besides having my great family, to do this all was one of the most satisfying parts of my life and I still miss it to this day.

I was on the dept for 25 yrs and retired in 2005 at the rank of Captain. Part of my duties included being in charge of training for the dept for many years. I had a very active role in the design and development of the training tower that is attached to the fire station.  Beginning in the mid 90's, a team from the dept was very involved in the Firefighter Combat Challenge. I was fortunate enough to win 2 National Championships in the 40 and over division. Our teams had a great time competing and we used the competition as a spring board for firefighter fitness.

One of My proudest accomplishments was the relationships I built with my fellow firefighters. We developed bonds that still exist today, many years after my retirement. Another was that both my sons went thru the cadet program and became paid on call firefighters as well. The lessons they learned  and experience they gained carried on into their adult lives. My son Trevor is currently a Lieut. on the Rockford Fire Dept and my son Drew went on to a very successful career in the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Gary Banjac was a Paid-on-Call Firefighter retiring in March of 2016, with over 37 years of serving the Byron community.

He started as a volunteer in 1978 and as both a firefighter and Paramedic he earned the Spirit of Innovation Award from T.E.R.C USA in November of 2005. A member of Byron’s auto extrication team which won numerous awards including a 3rd place finish at the International Extrication competition in 2002.

Gary is living in Arizona with his wife Terry surrounded by his children and grand children.

I started my career for the Byron Fire District as a volunteer fire dispatcher. Later when the fire department went fulltime I became a fulltime dispatcher.  Back then we dispatched the Byron Police and Fire Department.  This was back in the old fire department building. 

After my dispatching years I then became a clerical employee for the fire department. I did have the privilege of responding with the guys to major, fire and or accident scenes to video and to take still pictures.  I loved this part of my job.

I worked fulltime for the fire department for 27 years. I made many friends over the years who I really cherish and miss.

I really loved my job serving the residents of Byron.

I am proud to say that I am now employed for OSF St Anthony. I feel very blessed to be working at St. Anthony Medical Group in Cherry Valley