By David Stanczak
Yesterday, Bob and Julie Dobski shocked the entire community by announcing that they are selling their franchises and getting out of the McDonald’s business. They have operated the McDonald’s restaurants in the Bloomington-Normal area ever since 1989, when they came here from Farmington, Missouri, where they were also McDonald’soperators.
The Dobskis’ operation of the restaurants was a classic win-win situation. The business proved profitable for them, but even more so for the community. Even people who didn’t know them personally felt like they knew them from the commercials they did. One evening, while Julie was taking her monthly turn serving dinner at Safe Harbor, one of the men coming through the line asked her if she was Julie Dobski; I told him that she gets asked that a lot, without explaining why.
It is fashionable to talk about businesses “giving back to the community”, but Bob and Julie defined the concept; it’s become second nature for them. I’ve known them ever since they came to town, and I lost track of all the charitable work they’ve done a long, long time ago. That charitable work is over and above all they’ve done to support Illinois State University, which honored Julie for her work by awarding her an honorary doctorate degree. Bob is a university trustee, and he takes the position seriously. A university literally couldn’t have better supporters or generators of community involvement than Bob and Julie.
As McDonald’s operators, Bob and Julie were great employers, and provided first jobs to a lot of young people, and part-time jobs to a lot of seniors who weren’t ready to get completely out of the work force.
And they ran great restaurants. Several years ago, after stopping at one of them, my parents reported that the floor was so clean you could eat off of it.
Their ownership, like all things earthly, has an end-point. But the move will free up some of their time, especially Bob’s; he’s not much younger than me. I’ll be expecting an uptick in his humorous e-mails.
The good news is that McDonald’s loss is our gain; while the franchise ownership is going, they are still remaining in the community that they have blessed with their work,and I’m loving it!
David Stanczak, a Forum commentator since 1995, came to Bloomington in 1971. He served as the City of Bloomington’s first full-time legal counsel for over 18 years, before entering private practice. He is currently employed by the Snyder Companies and continues to reside in Bloomington with his family.
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