Rock is our president. He was there at the domino table and was a part of the conversation about starting a group to invest in the neighbourhood. Much of what we do is born from Rock’s passion for the community whether it is distributing food and supplies, or taking care of the kids, or hosting a family event in The Yard.

Rock was born on Homan and 16th Street. There was a snow storm and his mother couldn’t get to the hospital and so he popped out right there on the kitchen table. You can’t get much more born and raised in North Lawndale than that! He grew up riding bikes over to Dimenzo’s Pizza on Taylor Street and shopping over at Maxwell Street. He even got to shake Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s hand one time when he was driving down 16th Street when MLK was living in the neighbourhood. Ask him about his mother’s response to him not washing that hand for days following!

Since he was a boy Rock served in Vietnam as a Marine, worked as a law clerk, property investigator and private eye. He learned his way around the kitchen and worked for eight years at the Hyatt Regency O’Hare as the meat chef, where he cooked all the meat going out of that kitchen. He is also a long–time case manager with the North Lawndale Restorative Justice Community Court working for Chief Judge Tim Evans. In North Lawndale, Rock has worked for I Am Able, St. Anthony’s, St. Agatha’s Dream Builders, and a host of other organisations all with the purpose of caring for his community.

Rock has nine children, 29 grandchildren, and 15 great grand children.