18 THE FOUNDING AND EARLY YEARS plans were formulated to separate the two organizations. When the ACOFP Board would not reconsider its decision, Hank and Napoli resigned. Mr. Hank informed the board that he would evict ACOFP from his offices and have the Teamsters haul everything ACOFP owned out of his office by the end of the business day. In anticipation of such action, the board had formed a core group of leaders who stood ready to fly to Chicago and recover ACOFP’s assets. These men were John P. Sevastos, DO, FACOFP; S. Larry Koplovitz, DO, FACOFP; Robert G. Haman, DO, FACOFP; Joseph W. Stella, DO, FACOFP; Joseph S. Guzik, DO, FACOFP; and Delbert E. Maddox, DO, FACOFP. They responded to the threat by arriving at 111 Washington St., early in the day to take charge of recovery efforts. As related previously, two of the men were driven by an openly concerned cabbie to the Chicago stockyards to locate the bookkeeper who possessed the company’s only computer and vital financial records. They went to the bank with these records, only to find that the banker had no knowledge of any ACOFP accounts. Sadly, just as in the move from California, the entire assets acquired by the ACOFP during its time in Chicago were found in a cardboard box. The only other items of value recovered were a filing cabinet and a few Fellows Medals that Dr. Joe Guzik had made in his garage. No checkbook existed for ACOFP, and the total cash that the ACOFP could salvage was a little over $4,800. The mahogany tables and chairs and other office equipment the board had used were not ACOFP’s property, but that of Allied Appraisals. The only other things they were given to fill the box were a few membership records. ACOFP had arrived with nothing, and the college would leave with little more. Packing these meager possessions in a large moving van provided by Mr. Hank’s brother, a Teamster, made it clear that ACOFP’s future would again rest with the strength of its leadership and the dedication of its members. With virtually no financial base, the leaders moved to a hastily rented space at 2450 E. Devon St., in Des Plaines, Illinois. The new facility was located on the approach to a runway at O’Hare Airport near the perimeter fence. The building has since been leveled to become a parking lot for a large office complex outside the airport grounds. ACOFP leaders hired an assistant named Diane (last name unknown) to help them begin the rebuilding process. With a desk and an orange crate for a chair, she started work a day after the move, answering the phone and administering the correspondence. The leaders used their personal credit cards and signed personal guarantees of credit at the bank to buy equipment and hire personnel. These leaders, and the financial wizardry and assets of Raymond Saloom, DO, FACOFP, who had acquired a small fortune selling coffee to the military, would reestablish ACOFP’s solvency. Dr. Saloom used his expertise, as well as much of his capital, to enrich ACOFP’s bottom line. In recognition and gratitude for Dr. Saloom’s contribution, ACOFP opened its annual conventions in the years that followed with the Raymond Saloom Memorial Lecture. 2450 E. Devon St., Des Plaines, IL; 1982–1990
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