Joliet Pattern owner returned to Joliet, and glad he did
October 12, 2012 9:12PM
Andy Wood points out some of the work that his company made in the design of the Rawlings Gold Glove Award ESPN televison set at Joliet Pattern in Crest Hill, Illinois, Wednesday, October 10, 2012. | Joseph P. Meier~Sun Times Media
Updated: January 15, 2013 1:38PM
I am always fascinated by how people wind up in their jobs. For Andy Wood, president of Joliet Pattern, which now is making the Rawlings Gold Glove awards, the journey was a long and interesting one and his career fate was hinged to his eyesight.
Wood attended Joliet West High School and graduated in 1969.
“I left Joliet swearing I’d never come back,” he said.
Wood’s dad had been a Marine pilot, so Wood joined the Air Force to become a pilot, too. But his bad eyesight thwarted his dream. So he transferred to a Texas college and majored in English with an art minor.
He tried to make a living in the art world in Dallas and even opened an art gallery. But when his dad offered him the opportunity to open a second branch of the family-owned business, Joliet Pattern, in 1976 in Dallas, Wood agreed.
Back then, the company, which started as a tool and die business back in the 1930s, did a lot of roofing and siding display units. Little by little, Joliet Pattern evolved into a retail graphics firm. The Dallas office closed in 1980 and Wood came back home.
Wood said his art background helped him with his work, which involves the creation of colorful graphics and retail display units. As for being back in the Joliet are (the business is located in Crest Hill), Wood couldn’t be happier.
“Chicago is a huge hub for the printing industry and, of course, McDonald’s headquarters is in Oak Brook,” said Wood, whose company does a lot of work for the fast-good giant. “You have to be in the center of the country, especially when you have a national account.”
In addition to doing work for McDonald’s, Joliet Pattern also provides many items for Minneapolis, Minn.-based Dairy Queen. The first Dairy Queen opened in Joliet in 1940.
“So when you get introduced as Joliet Pattern, they say, ‘Oh, Joliet!’ They know their own history really well,” Wood said.
Lawyer searches
Recently, I wrote a story about a Bolingbrook woman who claimed she was misled about the status of a home she rented from an attorney. The woman believes she was duped because the home she rented was in foreclosure.
There are a couple of things consumers can do to protect themselves in such cases.
First, it’s easy to search lawyers’ backgrounds at the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission website. Visit www.iardc.org and click on “lawyer search.” Fill in the attorney’s name and click “submit.” You should get a list with your potential lawyer’s name on it. Click on the lawyer’s name. A page will appear and lower on the page are the highlighted words “rules and decisions.” Click on that and you will get a history of the lawyer.
Also, if you are ever unsure who owns a building you are going to lease, rent or even buy, you can check out ownership at the Will County Recorder of Deeds Office, 58 E. Clinton Street. That’s also where you can see if a residence has a foreclosure pending on it. Computers you can use to search by name or address are on the lower level of the building.
