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Show ! IN THESE UNITED STATES There's Ho Limit to Work Dey For Mayor of Many Interests WNU Features. , WOOD RIVER, ILL. The mayor of Wood River (popu-llation (popu-llation 8,197) is a man of two titles, five jobs, unbounded en- thusiasm and a complete disregard for the limits of a 24-hour . His Honor - Like mayors the country over, Lavier D. Humphrey finds many responsibilities re-sponsibilities attached to the job of being chief executive of the bustling little city of Wood River, III. The routine of handling civic affairs, however, is relieved when he is called upon frequently to serve as peacemaker in settling neighborly squabbles. Works, Too day. As mayor of the bustling Midwestern Midwest-ern town, 35-year-old Lavier D. Humphrey puts on his "executive hat" and, like mayors the country jover, deliberates highway improve- ments, tax rates, police affairs and garbage disposal. Then he switches to dungarees and an oil worker's safety helmet for his eight hour a day job as operator in Shell Oil company's re-jflnery re-jflnery in neighboring Roxana. Starting Start-ing with the company as a laborer In 1933, Humphrey has worked up :o his present job as an operator in Jhe lubricating oil plant. Donning a worn but serviceable service-able baseball cap symbolio of his intense interest in youth of the town Humphrey iurns to his third major interest, that of providing suitable recreation facilities fa-cilities for Wood River youngsters. young-sters. He has established supervised super-vised playgrounds for youngsters young-sters of all ages and currently is sponsoring the conversion of a 15-acre corn field into a ball park and recreation center. The mayor's fourth activity the one of which he secretly is most ; proud is his famed Junior G-Man i club, first of its kind in the country. Humphrey and Police Chief Frank IStarkey formed the club after youngsters caused $500 damage to municipal property during Halloween Hallow-een night festivities in 1944. Club members cooperate actively with police; they report parking violations, viola-tions, speeders, red light crashers; they unmasked a peeping torn always al-ways one look ahead of police, and they aided in detecting a gang of vandals who were breaking into the local high school. Since the club was organized, Halloween damage has dropped to less than $25. Humphrey admits, however, that 'Ms fifth job is the hardest: The coordination co-ordination of all his activities within the limits of a 24-hour day. Under a Shell policy encouraging employees 'to participate in civic activities, Humphrey often finds himself wear-ilng wear-ilng the mantle of each of his jobs at 'once. Between sandwich bites during dur-ing lunch hour in the refinery, ! he may hear a citizen's complaint com-plaint that his neighbor's children chil-dren get up too early, study a report on speeders from a trusted trust-ed G-Man lieutenant, review the latest set of ball park plans and even go over his own refinery reports. Enthusiasm is this young Mid-'"westerner's Mid-'"westerner's main trait a conta- gious enthusiasm of rolled up sleeves, hard work and the deep satisfaction that comes from accomplishment. Losing his official dignity, Humphrey Hum-phrey is known as "Humpy" at the Shell refinery, where he works in a section of the lubricating oil plant. Most of his working day is spent in front of a complicated control board bristling with dials, knobs and recording re-cording instruments which keep tab on the plant's operations. At Play . t ., r - f , - i " ; i ' r 1 One of bis honor's favorite relaxations re-laxations is to listen to his wife play the piano not the fast new swing tunes, but the old ones, Viennese waltzes, Victor Herbert, Sigmund Romberg. Son Don, 13, and a daughter, daugh-ter, Lamece, 11, also )om the family fami-ly group for frequent evenings of music. Human, After All - i i t t 'if v , f Back in high school, Humphrey set a record for the mile which lasted last-ed until 1947. He has been a fast-moving fast-moving man of action ever since. Rugged as he is, however, he occasionally oc-casionally tires from the strain at the refinery and city hall. When the pace does catch up with him, it's usually in this living room chair. |