To know about the history of Oswego or Kendall County, there’s no better person to ask than Roger Matile. He’s been the volunteer director of the Little White School Museum in Oswego since 1994.

The building was built as a church in 1850 before being used as a school. Church School eventually had to close in the spring of 1960 after being the last one-room school in Oswego Grade School District 8.

The building now serves as a community museum. The Oswegoland Heritage Association operates the museum in partnership with the Oswegoland Park District.

In May 1961, voters living in Oswego Community High School District 300 voted to consolidate with Oswego Community Consolidated Grade School District 8, creating a community unit school district serving students through 12th grade.

Matile, who recently turned 80, has lived in Oswego most of his life.

“I grew up on a farm in Wheatland Township out on Heggs Road,” he said. “But we were in the Oswego School District. I lived on the farm until I was 8. I actually went to a one-room school called Church School, because it was right across the street from the Wheatland United Presbyterian Church.”

Matile is a 1964 graduate of Oswego High School. He has been involved with the Oswegoland Heritage Association since 1976, when it was first formed.

“They asked me to be on the board,” he said.

He remains a member of the Oswegoland Heritage Association board. One of the projects Matile oversaw while on the board was the restoration of the Little White School Museum.

His work has not gone unnoticed. In 2016, a restored room at the Little White School Museum was named the Roger Matile Room.

In 2024, Matile was named the Kendall County Citizen of the Year, with the award being presented to him at a Kendall County Board meeting in May.

“This award is really for people who make the community better,” Kendall County Board Chairman Matt Kellogg said when presenting the award to him. “They’re people who go about their daily lives not worried about recognition. They are that fabric of the community that really pulls things together and Roger really fits this.”

In addition to being honored as Citizen of the Year, Matile received a Kendall County Historic Preservation Commission Award at the meeting for a lifetime of dedication to historic preservation.

In 2025, Matile was named an Outstanding Citizen Volunteer of the Year by the Illinois Association of Park Districts.

Matile continues to spend a lot of time talking and writing about history. He served as the editor of the Ledger-Sentinel for 28 years and wrote and published the books “A Bicentennial History of Kendall County, Illinois” and “150 Years Along the Fox: The History of Oswego Township, Illinois.”

He continues to write a local history column, “Reflections,” published in the Oswego Ledger and Record newspapers.

“I want people to realize that things happened before they came along and that there are reasons why roads go where they do and why towns are built where they are,” Matile said. “Stuff didn’t happen just willy-nilly. I like to inform people why things are the way they are.”