Shabbona, Neconihe Moka Man (Friend of the White Man), pageant, Order of the Arrow Wiyapunit Lodge # 106, Boy Scouts, June 12, 1956

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Charles Whitford and Barbara Guenette met while attending the Northern Illinois State Teachers College together in the late 1930s and married 1941, eventually having two daughters, Cheryl and Nancy.  Born in 1916, Charles was one of six children born to Manley and Ethel (Cadman) Whitford. Charles graduated in 1938 from NISTC with a Bachelors in Science focusing on Mathematics and Physics and was a member of the Sigma Zeta society.  Charles taught school briefly after graduating for NISTC.  During World War II, he served in U.S. Army.  Sometime after the war, Charles and Barbara moved to Aurora where Charles worked as an engineer at Western Electric Company, Inc. until his retirement.  Charles’ sister, Harriet (Whitford) Gale, and their mother, Ethel (Cadman) Whitford, were teachers, while Charles’ brother, Manley Whitford, ran the Whitford Clothing store in Hinckley. Barbara (Guenette) Whitford grew up in Waukegan, Illinois alongside her sisters Lois (Guenette) Bouton and Gretchen Guenette. Barbara graduated from Waukegan Township High School in 1934 and by 1938 was receiving financial assistance from the P.E.O. to attend NISTC.  Graduating in 1939 from Senior College with a Bachelor of Arts, Barbara was a member of the English Club and Daughters of Neptune. Barbara’s sister, Lois, graduated from the NISTC Junior College in 1939, having been a member of the Women’s Athletic Association, Physical Education Club and Daughters of Neptune.  Both Barbara and Lois wrote for The Northern Illinois in 1939.  Lois (Guenette) Bouton joined the U.S. Coast Guard Women’s Reserve in World War II, then became an elementary teacher in Zion, Illinois, having retired by 1989.  Gretchen Guenette served as a photographer for the Women’s Army Corp (WAC) from 1949-1969, afterwards becoming an x-ray technician until her death in 1994.  After college, Barbara became an avid gardener and both she and Charles actively collected postcards from around the world in addition to information on local history and significant events in their friends’ lives. The extensive collection of postcards from Charles and Barbara (Guenette) Whitford is now located in the RC 199 Postcard Collection.