As a way of saying “thank you” to the owner of Blue Diamond Wealth Management for claiming his Patch listing, we’d like to help community members get to know the business a little better. Founder and President Angelo Imbrogno provided most of the information below when he claimed his Patch listing. More information is available on Blue Diamond’s website. Name of the business: Blue Diamond Wealth Management Where is the business located? 2871 83rd St Darien, IL 60561 What is the business phone number? 630-985-8700 What does the business offer? Services in stocks, bonds, mutual funds, IRAs, …

As a way of saying “thank you” to the owners of Q Billiards & Sports Bar, we’d like to help community members get to know the business a little better. Robert Taft, owner of Q Billiards & Sports Bar, provided the information below when he claimed his Patch listing.  Name of the business: Q Billiards & Sports Bar Where is the business located? 8109 S. Cass Ave., Darien, IL 60561 What does the business offer? This spacious venue offers a full bar, banks of big-screen TVs, and a wide variety of games – including foosball, darts, beanbags, arcade games, and, of course, plenty of pool tables. Q …

As a way of saying “thank you” to Dave and Cindy Hagen, owners of Safety Village of Darien, we’d like to help community members get to know the organization a little better. The owners of Safety Village of Darien provided the information below when they claimed their Patch listing. For more information on the organization, visit the website by clicking here. Name of the organization: Safety Village of Darien Where is the organization located? 7400 S. Cass Ave., Darien, just north of Lace Elementary School. What does the organization offer? The community-funded Safety Village of Darien is like…

As a way of saying “thank you” to the owners of La Notte Due, we’d like to help community members get to know the business a little better. The owners of La Notte Due provided the information below when they claimed their Patch listing.  Name of the business: La Notte Due   (Italian for “The Second Night”) Where is the business located? 8123 S. Cass Ave., Darien What does the business offer? Walk into La Notte Due for a little taste of Italy. Whether dining alfresco or at a comfortable table surrounded by tasteful decor, the extensive menu offers some tempting choices. Begin with a fine wine …

  Kimberly Kissel was an active member of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) during her high school years in Momence. And she always performed well in the typing contests held at Ball State University. She didn’t know it at the time, but she was laying the foundation for her own business – Out of Office, Inc, in Darien. During her senior year, Kissel worked as a secretary at Eastern Illinois Trust & Savings Bank in Momence. “Once I tried the secretarial stuff, (I thought), ‘I really like this, and I’m good at it!’” she said. “And that started it all.” By graduation, Kissel had already …

As a child, Bob Claes traveled all over the country. His dad worked in public relations, and getting a better job often meant moving to another town. In the 1960s, communities began forming park districts, and Claes’ father was hired as the first director of the Elk Grove Park District. He kept that job for 30 years. Claes was a sophomore in high school when his family set down roots. There, he took a class in constitutional law and found his calling as an attorney. Today, he has his own practice in Darien – Law Offices of Robert M. Claes, Ltd. Claes has always been interested in the social …

Growing up in Rock Falls, IL, Paul Wilkin knew that he wanted to work in business. He thought he’d get a management degree and maybe an MBA but didn’t know what he wanted to do with them. Then he took an accounting class in junior college. That class eventually led to his own practice as CPA Services LLC in Darien. “This is kind of like doing a puzzle,” he said. “I liked the way you had to make all the pieces fit together. It was challenging. I decided I wanted to be an accounting major.” After earning his degree in accounting from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Wilkin set …

Jerry Hutter and his wife, Linda Templin Hutter, each learned about business from their families. Now they are pooling their experience and talents in their own promotional-products business – Hutco, LLC. Linda Templin’s family owned the automotive-parts business that her grandfather bought in the 1940s. But Templin had other plans for her career. She studied communications at Eastern Illinois University. “I was always out doing something for the newspaper at the college,” she said. Templin tried radio and photography before selling ads for the newspaper. That led her to a job in outside …

For as long as he can remember, Mark Bomba has been the handyman of his family. The youngest of six siblings, he was the only one to show any interest in tools. Bomba’s talent with tools became his livelihood as the owner of MB Remodeling in Darien. Bomba’s family moved from Burbank to Darien in 1985. He soon began doing work for his neighbors. “When I was 12, 13 years old, I was cutting 10 lawns in the neighborhood,” he said. “I was always doing something in the neighborhood, constantly doing stuff for people, even to this day. There’s constantly someone who wants something done.” Bomba’s …

Brian Kiefer and Jim Valenti set out on two different paths in life. Kiefer earned an economics degree and planned to work in the financial world. Valenti got into the transportation industry, eventually owning his own trucking company. Their paths have now converged to create the Kiefer Insurance Group. Kiefer has always been interested in the world of finance. He had hoped to turn his college internship at the Board of Trade into a full-time job upon graduation. “But when I got out of college, they introduced computer trading," he said. "My friends who were pit bosses there said, ‘We’re …

Working in a big office building never appealed to Mark Wirth. “I like to be outside,” he said. “I’m not the kind of person who can sit behind a desk all the time. I like to get my hands out and do things. I like to meet people.” He found his niche as owner of Wirth Landscaping in Darien. Wirth’s parents were both teachers. In the early 1980s, his dad, Lee, began working on the side for a teacher who had his own landscaping and nursery business. Wirth remembers his dad saying after many years, “Why can’t I do this?” And so began Wirth Landscaping. “(Dad) never gave up teaching,” Wirth said. “…

Stan Widlacki planned to be an accountant. He earned an accounting degree from Illinois State University and began working for a company in downtown Chicago. He later joined Sears Technology Services, where he processed Discover cards and performed internal audits. “I knew enough about computers, but I could still do management and accounting,” he said. “And then, I just burned out.” That burnout took Widlacki’s career in a new direction, as vice president and co-owner of All-Cut Inc., in Darien. Widlacki’s grandfather had been a journeyman with his own little shop. He fixed machines for …

Peter Cattaneo’s father was an electrician, working on high-rises in downtown Chicago. By 1976, the elder Cattaneo had had enough of his long commute. He and his wife decided to start their own business. Cattaneo Electric Company opened in 1977, operating out of the family home in Darien. “I’ve been answering the phone with ‘Cattaneo Electric’ since I was 9 years old,” said Peter Cattaneo.  By 1991, the business moved into a building on Frontage Road. In May 2002, it moved again to its current location, in a building designed for it. Cattaneo is senior project manager, responsible for sales …

Hank Boeger has deep roots in this area. The Yorktown shopping center sits on land his great-grandfather once farmed. His father and grandfather were born on that land. For more than 20 years, he has grown his own unique business in Darien – Boeger’s Landscape Supply. Boeger’s parents owned a “mom and pop” hardware store in Bellwood, where he grew up. “In the ‘70s, the chain stores were putting hardware stores out left and right,” he said. “Everybody wanted to shop the box stores. People weren’t thinking about service.” So Boeger got a job in construction while in high school at Proviso East…

Kevin Monaghan was the youngest of seven children. He admired his father’s professionalism and emphasis on family. Today, he’s walking in his father’s footsteps as the current owner of Monaghan Insurance. Monaghan’s father was a Navy gunner in World War II. But the residual effects of a childhood accident eventually led to surgery and a medical discharge. After his recovery, Travelers Insurance hired him as a salesman. His success there encouraged him to build his own insurance brokerage business—Monaghan Insurance—in 1942. Several sons eventually joined him in the business. “Everyone in …

Tom Weiland was intrigued by computers as a teenager. His interest grew into his own business in Darien – PC MD Enterprises. At Downers Grove South, Weiland took the few computer classes that were available to high school students in the mid-1970s. He created programs on punch cards and tapes. He also took programming classes at night at the College of DuPage. “Then I had a midlife crisis at the age of 17,” he said. “Both my brothers worked for IBM. I wondered, ‘Am I doing this because I want to do this? Or am I doing this because they’re doing this?’ So I joined the Navy and became a diesel …

Angelo Imbrogno loves golf. And like most golfers, he’s always looking for ways to improve his game. In 2007, he found a way. He also found a new business in Darien – AlignItUp. “My putting was terrible,” explained Imbrogno, picking up a golf ball. “See this line here? This is what is supposed to be the alignment tool, where you line up the ball so that you can putt into the cup. The problem is, it is too small; you can’t even see it. A lot of golfers take a marker and they draw a line that’s much bigger that they can see. But that’s kind of a hassle.” His solution was simple. “We developed …

Like many students, Dave Noorlag had a summer job while in high school. He drove a garbage truck for a sanitation company. When the company needed a welder to fix the trucks, Noorlag bought some equipment and began learning from experienced welders. “When I started, I just thought it was a way to make a little extra money,” he said. “I learned the welding business, and it just took off from there.” Noorlag now runs that business – Dave’s Welding Service – out of his home in Darien. And it has provided him with an unending variety of projects. Noorlag has worked on pipelines for oil companies …

Jim Welch didn’t know what he wanted to do with his Psychology degree. His dad, a purchasing agent, encouraged him to try sales. Thirty-eight years later, it’s clear that his father knew best. Xerox hired Welch right out of college. Six months later, the person who had trained him left to start a printing business. The person named the new company Impressions Unlimited. Welch became its first sales representative. Welch worked with all types of printing jobs. Some jobs, including printing index tabs, were sent out to another supplier. When the company president decided to focus on their core …

Joan Wayman learned some difficult life lessons at a young age. They spurred her to a career in engineering — and now to her own real estate firm in Darien. When she was a child, Wayman’s parents moved with their five children from Chicago to Tennessee. Her dad was a CFO. Life was comfortable. Until 1987. “When I was 16, my dad lost his job in Tennessee,” she said. “We moved from a five-bedroom house to a two-bedroom apartment.” Wayman’s family gradually recovered but not to where they once had been. The memory stayed with her. “I decided that I will never put my children in that position, …