| Kendall McCleary
| “Every older person in your community has a story worth telling.” In the spirit of this declaration, Aging in America News and The Legacy Project collaborated to field and publish five intergenerational portraits composed by younger (17-25 years old) writers. Here, McCleary profiles a staff member at her school.

| “Walking home one day, I saw someone had tossed out a little radio, and I picked it up, took it home, and plugged it in. This was about when I was in seventh or eighth grade, back in the 1960s. I was just fascinated by what was coming through that speaker. And at that moment, I knew this is what I want to do.” In an alley in Waukegan, Barrie Fromme’s discovery led to a career in radio and journalism spanning more than 50 years.

Fromme works as the marketing coordinator at my high school, Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart. He grew up in Waukegan, Illinois. 

When he was a junior in high school, he set out in pursuit of his career interest in both radio and early American rock and roll. “I went to the general manager’s office [of his local radio station in Waukegan] and said, ‘I’d like to work here.’ And the best piece of advice that he gave me was, ‘Barrie, you know you’re talented. You got some of the basic things, but go to college and come back and see me.’ And that’s the best advice I ever got, because if I hadn’t done that, I’d have probably burned out as a disk jockey very quickly.” 

Fromme attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. During his time on campus, he worked at both an FM and an AM radio station.

In 1970, he was the only on-scene reporter when the National Guard showed up to control protesters against the Vietnam War. This is where he found his passion for journalism and informing the public on local issues. His career in news journalism lasted 32 years before he shifted his focus to his ongoing marketing profession. 

One of the stories he told me from his time in journalism has stayed with me: “One day, I was working on one story, and all of a sudden, the police radio started going crazy. A small airplane had crashed into the roof of a local hospital. So I said, ‘Oh, boy, here we go.’ It turned out to be a mid-air collision [between two airplanes]. One of them landed on the roof of the hospital, and the other landed on the street, a few blocks away. It turned out that the pilot of the plane that crashed into the hospital roof was Bob Collins, a major personality on the Chicago radio station [WGN].”  Fromme described the importance of strong community connections and how they helped him report that story. “Being a local reporter, of course, I was only five minutes away. I knew all of the officials in Lake County. Right away, I knew who my sources were. Because of that, I was the first to confirm that there had been a fatality.”

When asked which report from his career was most memorable, he told me something I never expected. “Have you ever heard of the author Ray Bradbury?” He’s the author of many famous works, including Fahrenheit 451 and The Martian Chronicles. “He was born and raised in Waukegan. He was very, very loyal to his hometown and his upbringing, and he visited several times. During my time as a reporter there [in Waukegan], I got to interview him more than once.” 

He mentions an even more intriguing celebrity encounter. “I got to interview Sonny Bono. After he was a congressman, he came to Lake County for a function. I got to interview him shortly before he died.” He and Cher had already divorced by the time he got to interview Sonny, but regardless,  Fromme told me that you can meet some remarkable people in your career if you put yourself out there.

He passed along some words of wisdom, including this advice. “The key to being a good interviewer is to be a good listener. Another component is to be prepared and go in with prepared questions. But I’ve seen so many young interviewers stick to the script. That’s a huge mistake. They will ask a question, and when you answer, it opens the door to so many other good follow-up questions, but they don’t take it [the chance to ask follow-ups]. Above all else, listen!”

Kendall McCleary is a 17-year-old high school senior at Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, IL. In her free time, she enjoys theater and art and looks forward to her college years.