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Delavan historian tells stories of years past

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Photo by Bill Olmsted

Gordon Yadon

DELAVAN — Who would have thought the Delavan historian never passed high school history?

"In order to graduate, you had to pass U.S. History, and the teacher and I couldn't get along, and she wouldn't pass me," Gordon Yadon said of his high school years. "I had all my credits except for U.S. History.

"She flunked me. I went back another year, and she flunked me again."

Yadon never passed U.S. History, but he was awarded an honorary degree after serving as a Navy corpsman in World War II. Still, those who know Yadon would agree he's doing quite well on the subject, especially on the chapter dedicated to Delavan history.

At 87, the lifelong Delavan resident knows more about history than a newspaper article could hold. He has read nearly every local newspaper printed since the 1940s, and he has stacks of papers, tapes and other artifacts documenting the history of Delavan and its people.

Yadon's passion for history began when he started looking at Delavan's circus past.

"Nobody had ever done much research on it," he said. "And I said, 'My gosh, here we had 26 circuses, and very little information on it.' So I spent about 10 years researching it."

Yadon isn't sure why he suddenly became interested. He had just received a degree in podiatry from a college in Chicago and was about to begin working as Delavan's postmaster, a position he held for 30 years.

The Delavan historian just knew he had to be the one to tell stories of years past.

"It was a story that hadn't been told," he said.

From there, Yadon began researching other stories about people and places, from Delavan High School graduates to war veterans and Lake Delavan ballrooms.

He authored a book containing short biographies of every Delavan High School graduate since the first class, a feat that included about 2,400 students and pictures of most of them.

Yadon also wrote a series of articles on Delavan's World War II veterans like himself.

Yadon served as a Navy corpsman and was awarded a Purple Heart and a valorous Bronze Star. He was recalled to active duty for the Korean War.

"Once I was done, I came back to Delavan," he said. "It's my birthplace, and I just never wanted to remove my residence from here."

Yadon is a man of many hats: He's a retired postmaster and podiatrist, veteran of two wars, local historian, newspaper columnist, active member of the local Legion Post, volunteer director of Delavan's arboretum and great-grandfather.

He has written for the Delavan Enterprise since 1947, at one point working at the newspaper's sports desk. He now writes weekly columns featuring local history, which he still types on his manual typewriter.

And he will continue to do so for as long as he can.

"You never exhaust your material you're researching," Yadon said. "There's always something there."