Biography

Mr. Robare grew up in Western Springs, and his father did as well. Mr. Robare did not grow up by McClure, so instead he went to Highlands Middle School. Mr. Robare went to Lyons Township High School, where he played tennis. He was also on the Men's Tennis Team during his college years at the University Illinois Chicago.  After college, Mr. Robare came back to Western Springs because many of his friends and people he knew lived there. Mr.Robare lived in Western Springs for about 30 years total. He has been a tennis coach at LT and also a McClure math teacher for eight years, as well as a McClure basketball coach.

Conversation Topics

• Kirschbaum's: Mr. Robare loves Kirschbaum's cookies and treats.  When he was in middle school, he would ride his bike with friends to get cookies from Kirschbaum's Bakery.

• Lyons Township High School: Mr Robare went high school at LT and played both singles and doubles tennis there.

• Odegaard’s Dry Cleaners: Mr Robare used to bike with his friends to the dry cleaners and they would hang out in front of the building because there were not a lot of other places in town where kids could just be together.

Western Springs Story

Mr. Robare is a 7th grade math teacher at McClure Junior High, and he grew up in Western Springs. He has been a Lyons Township tennis coach since he started teaching, and was the head coach for the past few years. He has lived in Western Springs for a total of 30 years. He went to college at the University of Illinois Chicago where his major was economics. After college Mr. Robare decided he wanted to return to his hometown. During his childhood, Mr. Robare would bike around the town with friends. They did not stop anywhere in downtown Western Springs because there was only Odegaard's Dry Cleaner and Kirschbaum's Bakery. Mr. Robare has fond memories of growing up in Western Springs and he willingly shared those stories with us so we could better understand and appreciate our hometown.

What Makes Western Springs Special

• Even though Mr. Robare doesn't live in Western Springs anymore, he said that he appreciates now that it's a great place to grow up and raise a family. He didn't always appreciate how nice it was when he was younger. Now that he is older and he and his friends are getting married and having kids, many of them are moving back here. As Mr. Robare put it, “There's a reason families come here and stay here”

• “Whether it was triumphant or tragic or whatever, it was always your personal  experience and where you were.”

Changes Seen in Western Springs

Mr. Robare said he thinks that students today have a lot more time commitments outside of school that he didn't have and he described how technology has changed so much about growing up in Western Springs.

• He said he doesn't know how anything ever got done in the 1990s and early 2000s because cell phones weren't nearly as popular as they are now. Kids would leave their house in the morning on their bikes and not come home until it was dark. If a kid wanted to talk to their friends to make plans, they would have to call the friend's house phone and then talk to their friends' parents or whoever answered. 

• Mr. Robare also said that the look and feel of classrooms have changed a lot over the years. So had the technology that we use to learn. As he put it: "Eight years ago I remember I was stuck in the corner of the room with a doc camera and that's not that good for learning.”

Mr. Robare also shared his memories of events on 9/11 when he was a student at Highlands Middle School. Even though the attacks were far away, he remembered how the news spread around his school and town, and that there were big changes in the world afterward.

Describe Western Springs in 3 Words

• Safe

• Fun

• Carefree

Artists' Sketches

Citation

Robare, Dave. Personal Interview. 8 May 2023.