‘One of the toughest guys I’ve ever met’: Spring remembered for two terms as mayor, fundraising work at QND

QUINCY — Many people asked for their thoughts Monday night about the death of John Spring were quick to note his leadership and sense of community.

Ray Heilmann, a teacher and principal at Quincy Notre Dame High School who worked alongside Spring for several years, offered a different perspective. He called Spring “one of the toughest guys I’ve ever met in my life.”

“He could overcome anything,” Heilmann said through tears from his Arizona home. “He was not only a very sensitive and faithful guy, but he was just plain tough. He had fortitude beyond belief. He was a man who could take on any type of obstacle or challenge and, at the same time, be there for anybody. He was a great dad, he was a great grandfather, and he was a great friend.”

Spring, 76, died Monday afternoon at Siteman Cancer Center in St. Louis after a lengthy fight with esophageal cancer.

He is a son of the late John C. and Aledo Spring. He met Karen Jansen while they were attending Quincy College, and they got married on Sept. 7, 1968, at St. Boniface Catholic Church. She died Feb. 21, 2021.

Spring is survived by his three children — Stacey (Andrew) Staff of Quincy, Joshua (Cindy) Spring of Frankfort, Ky., and Michael (Brooke) Spring of Carmel, Ind. — and seven grandchildren.

Spring may be best remembered for serving two terms as mayor of Quincy, defeating David Nuessen to earn his first term in 2005 and defeating Dave Bellis to win re-election in 2009. 

Spring, a native of Rock Island and a graduate of Alleman High School, first worked as a teacher in St. Louis and in the Quincy Public Schools before QND hired him in 1976 as a biology teacher and an assistant basketball and football coach. 

A profile about Spring on Quincy Notre Dame’s Sports Hall of Fame website said former principal Sister Karl Mary Winkelmann asked Spring halfway through the 1976-77 school year to put aside his teaching duties and serve as the school’s first full-time director of development. He later learned the school owed a local bank $110,000 to cover consolidation and operating costs. 

One of Spring’s first actions was to launch the school’s first fund drive, which raises money to cover the gap between the cost of educating each student and the amount of tuition the school must charge. Spring went on to be the executive director for 29 years, raising millions of dollars for the Quincy Notre Dame Foundation.

“Sister Karl Mary went to him and said, ‘We need to have a foundation director, and we need to have someone who can lead us into the next 50 or 100 years of stability through financial support from the community,” Heilmann remembered. “The next thing we knew, instead of being a science teacher and coach, he was the head of the development. He obviously was highly successful. He just did an incredible job of solidifying the financial stability of Quincy Notre Dame for decades to come.”

Kurt Stuckman, now the executive director of the QND Foundation, called Spring a friend and a mentor.

“John was a visionary,” Stuckman said. “He was a leader, a colleague and someone who wanted the best for Catholic education in Quincy. I mean, he literally built the QND Foundation from the ground up. He never wavered in the need to raise money and raise money quickly to save Quincy Notre Dame.

“Quite simply, Quincy Notre Dame and the Quincy Notre Dame Foundation would not be the institutions they are today without the creativity and the ambition of John.”

Spring, a Democrat, first dipped his toes into the city’s political waters as a member of the Police and Fire Commission for eight years, as a city water commissioner and as chair of the Public Works Commission. Those assignments gave him insight into the workings of city government, including the budgeting and hiring processes.

“We really worked hard to work things out for the betterment of the community, and we always came to an agreeable solution,” said Dick Wentura, who served with Spring on the Police and Fire Commission. “No problems at all. We worked very well together.”

They worked together so well that Spring convinced Wentura, a Republican and an ardent booster of Quincy High School athletics, to co-chair the QND Fund Drive with Jim Waterkotte in 1990.

“Being an old Blue Devil, it was a little bit controversial at the time, but I stood up for his asking,” Wentura said. “We had a great campaign, and I got to know John and know how he worked hard for the Notre Dame.”

When Chuck Scholz decided in September 2004 not to run for a fourth term as mayor for health reasons, he turned to Spring to take his spot on the Democratic ticket.

“I talked to John, and I was very concerned that we had some programs that were in the middle of being implemented,” Scholz said. “I wanted to see that whoever got elected would follow through on all of that. I thought he was a leader who understood our values. I was very impressed with everything he had done through Notre Dame.

“I was the one who asked him to think about it, and he ran a great campaign.”

During his time as mayor, Spring led successful efforts to expand Amtrak service to Quincy, upgrade Maine Street from Fourth to 10th and implement a multi-year infrastructure plan. Quincy enjoyed expansion and job growth in the South Quincy Industrial District, while unemployment remained low compared with state and national averages. Quincy also saw improvements in airline service and economic activity at Quincy Regional Airport.

After his political career ended in 2013, Spring spent his free time as a member of the Quincy Service Club (formerly Quincy Exchange Club), the QND Hall of Fame Committee, the QND Foundation board and the Salvation Army.

“Oh, golly, we gathered every Friday (for lunch with the Quincy Service Club), and we sat together through three recent presidential elections,” Wentura said. “Nothing political was ever said and argued. It just was a great friendship.”

Mayor Mike Troup informed the Quincy City Council at the start of Monday’s meeting about Spring’s death. 

“It was quite a shock,” Troup said. “I know his health wasn’t the best, but I didn’t realize he was, you know, at the end of his life. He’s going to be missed. He has a strong family, and he was good for the city. He knew a lot of people. He continued to be involved with the community in a variety of capacities.”

“He was a fine man,” Mike Farha, the longest-serving alderman on the City Council said before Monday night’s meeting. “His heart was in the right place. He’ll really be missed.”

Mike McClain, a former member of the Illinois House, a long-time lobbyist in Springfield and a graduate of Christian Brothers High School (before it became QND), said in a text Monday night to Muddy River News that Quincy was blessed by Spring’s work.

“He taught us all to raise money for QND,” McClain said. “He loved QND and Quincy. Any school that asked him to help with fundraising in their community, he was present. He was a remarkable person, and we are all better off in our region because of him and his family.”

Stuckman said he maintained contact with Spring up until his latest trip to Siteman.

“John and I would talk at least once a week about a variety of things,” he said. “Maybe it was city politics. Maybe it was about Quincy Notre Dame. Maybe I’d have an idea and say, ‘John, what do you think about this?’ John would always have some terrific insight based on his history with QND and as the leader of our city. He just had an uncanny ability to have a sneaking suspicion about how things would go. He was just a planner. He could plan and execute.

“When I think of John, I think of somebody who was passionate about everything he did.”

Asked to tell his best story about Spring, Heilmann laughed and said, “I’ve got so many.”

He then talked about the first time doctors diagnosed Spring with cancer.

“They told him he would probably not be able to walk again,” Heilmann said. “He was in a wheelchair, and the prognosis from the doctors was not good. They didn’t know that John was one of the toughest guys anywhere, and so he overcame that. In fact, he not only walked again, but he also played golf. He just overcame. But sometimes God says, ‘That’s enough suffering.’

“John impacted so many people. His personality didn’t have a ripple effect. He was a tsunami, and that’s a big difference.”

Duker and Haugh Funeral Home in Quincy is handling the arrangements.