Rapp honor as JWCC Pathfinder well-deserved and long time coming
We don’t appreciate people sometimes until they decide it’s time to leave.
Jim Rapp’s 50-year service as the legal counsel for John Wood Community College coincides with the institution’s birth 50 years ago. He ran for a seat on the first JWCC Board of Trustees and lost, but that might have been the best thing ever for the school.
Jim’s first boss, attorney Robert Hunter, recommended him for the post as the college’s legal counsel as Hunter was nearing the end of a long and respected legal career. The beginning stages of helping build a “junior college” sounded like the perfect job for a young, up-and-coming attorney.
That was in 1974. At the end of 2024, Jim is taking a step back and retiring from the post, although he will still be present for his successor and law partner, David Penn, for consultation.
Jim has written numerous books on education law and is one of the foremost experts on the subject in the country. His passion for the community college led him spearhead, along with his wife, Martha Brune Rapp, a writing of the history of 50 years of John Wood Community College, which was done with some assistance from us here at Muddy River News.
JWCC honored Jim Thursday night with its first “Pathfinder” award. It was appropriate since he has been instrumental in charting the college’s path for the past 50 years, moving from musty offices in the old Illinois State Bank Building to a beautiful campus at 48th and Harrison.
Jim, along with myself and Mike Kinscherff of Central State Bank, are the founding partners of Muddy River News. Jim was a journalism student at the University of Illinois before going to law school at Washington University in St. Louis. He and Mike have been instrumental in what MRN has built in less than four short years. The company cannot continue to grow and push the envelope on community journalism without their support.
The celebration Thursday night, the video on this page and this little note aren’t nearly enough of a thank you for what Jim has done for not only John Wood but for life in Quincy in general.
I doubt Jim is ever going to really “retire,” because when you love what you do, it really isn’t work.
Jim and Martha Rapp certainly love this community.
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