Living by the Golden Rule earns Micke the Golden Eagle

As Cloquet's Steve Micke was presented with one of Boy Scouting's highest honors -- the Golden Eagle Award -- last week, he humbly quoted from the book of Luke, "To those who are given much, much is expected." That's because Micke's support of the Boy Scouts and many other organizations in the community comes from a belief that he has been blessed with many good things in his lifetime, and he wants to pass that along to

others.

The Golden Eagle Award is presented annually to an adult Boy Scout volunteer who is considered a "champion of community service." It seems that Micke fits that description to a T.

"He's a very giving guy," stated keynote speaker Rick Stowell at the 2010 Golden Eagle Luncheon at Our Savior's Lutheran Church in Cloquet. "When I think of people you can count on as a volunteer, I think of Steve Micke."

Fellow keynote speaker Paul Dreschler couldn't have agreed more.

"He's an honest, caring, giving kind of guy and always very positive," Dreschler said of Micke.

But Micke was quick to give credit to the many others in his life who have helped and inspired him to a life of community service.

"I had a great childhood growing up," he reflected. "Mom and dad never said a cross word to each other, ever."

Micke was born and raised in Cloquet, the oldest of seven children and the fourth generation of his family to make the community his home.

"First there was my great-grandpa Ted, then my grandpa Ted, and then my dad Ted," he explained. "I was supposed to be Ted the Fourth, but they must have gotten tired of it by then!" he laughed.

"My mom and dad lived within a block of each other on Reservation Road," he said, "and my grandpa on my mom's side owned a little greenhouse on Big Lake Road. I helped them with it when I was little, and I can still remember that wonderful smell. That's where I get my interest in flowers."

He grew up in the Noisel Addition, just south of the current County Seat Theater, at a time when that area was more rural than suburban.

"It was country," said Micke. "We used to do a lot of swimming in Otter Creek and some friends of mine and I built a log cabin back on Potlatch land. We had fun and it was a great place to grow up. When the Noisels were making a road in there, they needed someone to help cut the trees so I logged off that whole area off with a hand saw and an ax when I was just 12 years old. I'd cut it in eight-foot lengths, carry it out on my shoulders and pile it up. When I had a good-sized pile, my dad would call Dick Berthiaume and he would come and haul it away, so I made some money doing that."

Micke's early school years were spent attending "nearly every school in town."

"I went to kindergarten at Garfield, then first through third grades at Queen of Peace School, fourth at Churchill and fifth and sixth at Washington," he said. "By the time I got to middle school I pretty much knew all of the kids! Because I lived in a rural area, they moved us around to different schools according to wherever they needed more students."

Among Micke's early interests was Cub Scouts, and his mother served as his pack's den mother for two or three years.

Gregarious and outgoing from the start, Micke said he enjoyed school even though he admitted he wasn't a great

student.

"I had pretty much a B average, but the one class I didn't like was choir," he admitted. "I just wasn't much of a choir boy. When I got to high school, I loved accounting and all of the business classes. I decided I wanted to do something in business, and I kind of thought of becoming a banker."

In fact, Micke became the first male teller at Cloquet Cooperative Credit Union in 1974-75 as part of the high school's vocational training

program.

His other interests in high school pretty much revolved around sports, participating in football, basketball and track.

When he was 12, his dad took him out deer hunting for the first time, a passion he carried on into adulthood.

"It pretty much stuck with me up until one year, around the start of hunting season, when Rick Stowell asked me if I wanted to go to Palm Springs for a golf junket," Micke related. "I told him I'd go, and one morning before golf, we were sitting in the hot tub having breakfast and coffee and I thought, 'I could be sitting on a deer stand in the cold right now....' That's when deer hunting pretty much ended for me!"

Micke's grandfather was what he called a "debit man" for Prudential Life Insurance in Cloquet, and he'd go around and collect insurance premiums and have coffee with the people he visited and find out what was happening in the community.

When Micke's dad was just 17, he started at First Bank (now US Bank) and worked there for many years as a banker.

Since his dad had his insurance license, he eventually decided to go into business for himself, buying a couple of small local agencies that were on the market.

He started Reliable Insurance Agency in October 1974, and his office was in a back corner of the Twin City Federal building (now CornerStone State Bank). Former co-worker Duane Carlblom joined him as a partner for a time, along with several other employees from the bank.

At the time Carlblom decided to get out of the business, Steve had graduated from St. John's University with a degree in business administration with an emphasis in management and was working for an insurance company in Minneapolis.

"I had been in Minneapolis for two years and had gotten married in 1979," Micke related, "when my dad came down there one day and said, 'Do you want to come back home?' I said, 'Heck, yes!' I wanted to come back up north. I didn't care for the Twin Cities at all. It was just too hectic living there."

Steve joined his dad in the business in May 1981. Shortly thereafter, his dad bought the City National Bank Insurance Agency from Rod Thompson and hired Val Wojtysiak that June. They moved into their current building on Carlton Avenue in July 1981.

"It was nice being back here," reflected Micke, "and after my grandpa had worked so long with Prudential and my dad did at the bank, it wasn't really hard to go out and sell to clients. I learned that as long as you take care of them, the community takes care of you. That's kind of how it's been. You don't stay in business for 35 years if you don't take care of the customers. It's been a real blessing to be here this long and have the community support that we do. That's the reason I like giving back to the community -- because they've given me and my staff so much. Giving back just isn't all that hard."

And give back, he has. Micke has been involved with Rotary, Kiwanis, Boy Scouts, United Way, the Cloquet Area Chamber of Commerce and the Knights of Columbus, just to name a few.

A couple of weeks ago, he participated in the American Heart Association Heart Walk along with some of his co-workers and went to "jail" to raise money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

"I enjoy people," he said. "I get to meet so many of them, and I like to find out all about them. For the last four years, for example, I've helped with the Community Thanksgiving Dinner -- I'm the potato and gravy guy! I enjoy the people who come down there. For them, that's their big Thanksgiving dinner. I was lucky enough to have a mom and dad, seven brothers and sisters, and grandmas and grandpas. I had the Norman Rockwell kind of Thanksgiving, and I thought everybody else did, too. I count my blessings, but I still dig in and help out. I get more back than I give. That's why I can't say no."

Micke's dad retired from the business in 2000, and today, Steve and Wojtysiak are co-owners and manage a staff of 17 employees.

Micke has two children, Andy, 28, who works at a ski resort in Lake Tahoe, and Robin, 24, who is finishing up coursework at the University of Minnesota Duluth in accounting and finance.

These days, Micke gets up at 5:45 a.m. each morning and walks four miles before work in order to stay in shape.

He has been helping the Boy Scouts out for more years than he can remember, assisting them with their community campaign for businesses along with Fred Little, Barry Bergquist and Margi Christofferson. He also served as the liaison from the Rotary Club to local Boy Scout Troop 171 and was instrumental in getting the scouts to help with Rotary's annual Hook and Slice on Ice fundraising event.

Micke has helped organize the Rotary Hook and Slice on Ice event for the past 10 years along with Dr. Chad Spillers, which has raised over $100,000 that the Rotary Club has given away to kids and charities.

"I love doing what I do -- helping others," said Micke. "That's what drives me."