MELROSE PARK, Ill. — Bill Darley walks into the room and begins to greet people, even strangers, with a warm hand shake and a smile that makes you feel like you’ve known him for years.
“Welcome to Darley,” he said, gripping a visitor’s hand, welcoming him into the vast enterprise where he has been the benevolent ruler for 46 years.
Bill Darley has been in the fire truck and fire pump manufacturing for most of those as president of the W.S. Darley & Co., a municipal equipment business his father founded 90 years ago.
An icon in the fire apparatus business — just about everybody who has anything to do with fire equipment knows Bill Darley and those who don’t quickly become at ease with the man who likes to tell humorous stories and reminisce about days gone by.
The business card he hands out has a four-color picture of himself next to a fire truck parked outside the plant just so people won’t forget who he is and what he does.
But it’s not necessary; nobody forgets Bill Darley.
Even though he’ll be stepping down as president on his 70th birthday on July 17, he still speaks enthusiastically about the company’s future and his “promotion” to Chief Executive Officer (CEO).