Joseph Kellman

Joseph "Joe" Kellman, b. January 7, 1920, is an American businessman and philanthropist. Born in Chicago, Illinois he grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood. [cite web |url=http://www.bbfchicago.org/founderbio.htm |title=Founders Biography |accessdate=2007-07-26 |publisher=Better Boys Foundation] Together with his brother, Kellman inherited their father's glass business. Eventually, the brothers parted ways and the company was split in to manufacturing and retailing. Kellman developed the two small shops over the next 45 years into Globe Glass and Mirror. At one point the country's largest auto glass chain, in 1997, it merged with Safelite AutoGlass, which is part of Belron US [cite web |url=http://www.glasslinks.com/newsinfo/safmerg1.htm |title=Safelite Vistar Merger |accessdate=2008-04-24 ] .

Better Boys Foundation

A fan of the sport of boxing, Kellman promoted and managed boxers during the 1960s. His interest in boxing and his long-burning desire to put something back into his old neighborhood began his lifetime of civic involvement. In 1961, with the help of Buddy Hackett, Kellman founded the Better Boys Foundation to help one of the nation’s most disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. The Better Boys Foundation offers youth participants tutoring and mentoring for academic enhancement and high school graduation, leadership training, cultural diversity and social skills training.

Corporate/Community Schools of America

In 1988 in he established the country’s first business-sponsored elementary school, the Kellman Corporate Community School in impoverished North Lawndale. The philosophy behind the project was to applying the techniques that are common in business to public education and to improve the learning environment in inner-city public schools [cite web |url=http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1990/05/28/73593/index.htm |title=Making Education Work |accessdate=2007-07-26 |publisher=CNN Money] . The school has been innovative in its use of computer technology and implementing 1-to-1 learning methods [cite web |url=http://www.apple.com/education/profiles/kellman/?sr=hotnews.rss |title=Mobile Learning Gives Urban Students New Opportunities |accessdate=2007-07-26 |publisher=Apple Inc] . Since the establishment of the school the primarily African-American residents of the neighborhood have enjoyed a truly different school [cite web |url=http://www.lib.niu.edu/ipo/1994/ii940321.html |title=School reform du jour |accessdate=2007-07-26 |publisher=XXX] working in close partnership with the Better Boys Foundation to improve the quality of life for North Lawndale youth and their families.

References

External links

* [http://www.bbfchicago.org Better Boys Foundation]
* [http://www.safelite.com Safelite AutoGlass]
* [http://www.greatschools.net/modperl/browse_school/il/1075/ Great Schools - Review]