Donald Wilson

former Evanston Alderman, 4th Ward

Donald Wilson, former alderman of Evanston's 4th Ward, has come a long way from his first job loading and unloading trucks for the Chicago Tribune.

As a teenager, Wilson started work at 4:30 every morning. He explains that many sections of the daily paper were pre-printed, and the "new" sections were updated daily with more recent news.

"We'd unload the truck," says Wilson, "and stick the pre-printed parts [of the paper] into the new part. Then we'd reload the truck."

Wilson says his first job was hard work and motivated him to work hard to do well in school.

"It was a lot of lifting and heavy labor," says Wilson. "Very dirty. You'd get all the dust and ink everywhere."

When asked what he learned from his first job, Wilson responds that it is easy to forget how difficult and labor-intensive many jobs can be.

"It was a very diverse group [of workers]," says Wilson. "It made me appreciate how hard a lot of people have to work, especially starting out."