Roush Trucking donates to Kishwaukee College programs

MALTA – The Kishwaukee College CDL/Truck Driver Training Program received a donation of a semi truck cab from Roush Trucking Inc. of Esmond.

“This donation will provide us with another training vehicle for our students,” Joe Dahm, coordinator of the CDL/Truck Driver Training program, said in a news release. “I am very grateful to the Roush family for their generosity.”

The Roush family donated a 2005 International 9400i to the program. The vehicle has logged nearly a million miles of road time and has a cam shaft that needs some work. The cam shaft enables another Kishwaukee College program – Diesel Power Technology (DPT) – to work on the truck and gain some real-world experience as well before the rig is put to use in the CDL program.

“We are very supportive of our local college and are glad we can help with this venture,” Walt Roush said in the release.

For the Roush family, donating to Kish is just another connection to the college. Both Walt and Dan Roush are Kish alumni, as are their wives, Pat and Becky. Walt was a student at Kish in 1969, a year after the college opened its doors, and has a two-year agriculture degree. Dan earned a degree in diesel mechanics, as diesel power technology was known at the time. Dan’s wife, Becky, has a horticulture degree and Walt’s wife, Pat, has a clerical degree (now known as Office Systems).

Pat worked at the college as the secretary for Donald Higgs, director of Agriculture programs, and later for Rollie Bonneau in the early 1970s. She and Walt met while at the college.

The ties to the college continued through the years with Walt’s children, Eric and Sara, having attended the college, with Sara Roush Quincer even teaching in the psychology department.

Walt also taught truck driving in a re-training program in the mid-1980s at the college to assist employees who had been laid off at the Swift Plant in Rochelle. Now their grandchildren attend the Early Childhood Center located on campus. Dan and Becky’s daughter, Katie, is a current student who played on the Kougars volleyball team this fall.

As is common for Kishwaukee College alumni, the Roushes used the education they received at Kish and became successful entrepreneurs.

Dan Roush had bought a local livestock hauling company in the mid-1970s and made the Esmond to Madison, Wisconsin, run, delivering livestock to the Oscar Mayer processing plant. Walt Roush also had been driving part-time for other local companies. Both brothers purchased their own trucks and began a business partnership in the 1980s. By 1997, they had incorporated the business.

Roush Trucking Inc now has nine trucks and is a family affair. Walt, Dan, Eric and Sara’s husband, Jason, each own trucks and drive for the company, and they have an additional five company-owned trucks. Becky has managed the office side of the business, from dispatching to bookwork, for more than 30 years. Their company now is an interstate trucking firm, covering 48 states and Canada.

The family has always been supportive of the college that gave them a foundation and a shared history. Both Dan and Walt Roush have sat on department advisory committees for diesel power technology, welding, and other related departments. The recent donation is in keeping with their commitment to providing excellent experiential education for local students.

“We are a very blessed family to work together and stay as close as we do,” Becky Roush said in the release.