MONROE - Maybe it's Louis Armstrong's lineage that's led him into city government.
His great-great-great-great grandfather Mordecai Kelly, an Irish pioneer who settled in Monroe in the 1830s, is where his ancestry began.
In his first term as Monroe's mayor, Armstrong said he isn't sure where his interest in city government actually originated, but it's taken him on a path to lead the city where he was born and raised. That, coupled with an influencing book from the library, has him working to serve his community and care for the land his ancestors settled on so many years ago.
As a child, Armstrong said he enjoyed exploring the town and especially having fun around the fairgrounds near where he grew up. He said Monroe then was a similar place to what it is now, and he has great memories. He was a child who had a natural love for the outdoors, and he enjoyed fishing with his father in the summertime. He even got into hunting on his own.
At Monroe High School, he enjoyed his time on the wrestling team. He said he was a good student and also worked at a local grocery store and hung out with a solid group of friends - many of whom he still has. The close-knit group spent their summers baling hay for local farmers outside of town, a job he truly enjoyed.
He earned the spot as senior class president and graduated in 1983.
After graduation, that same group of friends worked hard and played hard together, he said. He enjoys still being connected to many of them.
His plan after graduation was one that developed over time. Armstrong's father, a teacher at Northside, and his mother took him and his brother to the library regularly. His father was often doing research, and Armstrong said their minds were regularly exposed to the walls lined with books.
It was among them that Armstrong discovered "Strictly for the Chickens," a book written by Frances Hamerstrom, a Wisconsin environmentalist who worked with ecologist Aldo Leopold. She and her husband studied prairie chickens in central Wisconsin. The book focused on their hardships and constant struggles, but their love for land, farm and animals thrived. Why they continued despite many hardships made Armstrong think.
"That book drove me for some reason," Armstrong said.
Armstrong was young, and he still isn't exactly sure why he decided to pick up and read that particular book, but it was their story, he said, that led him on his career path. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for wildlife management.
He was in Stevens Point several years, he said, simply enjoying life. Despite it being lengthy, he said he never veered from his original path. He earned his degree in wildlife management in 1989 with a minor in natural resources.
He landed his first job studying nesting bald eagles in Arizona.
"It was very cool," he said with a smile. "But it didn't pay much."
Over the course of the next six years, Armstrong would hold several positions, including working at a peregrine falcon hack site and spending a summer raising penguins in Wyoming until they could fledge on their own.
He pursued jobs through local DNRs and enjoyed the work. However, it was often seasonal and while he wasn't working, he would make his way back to Monroe.
Eventually he found a company in Brodhead that did prairieland and wetland restoration. They sent him to Indiana to complete a 7,000-acre project, and he led the business, opening a field office in Minnesota for them. He was doing the work he had hoped for until 2006, when he decided he wanted the comforts and familiarity of home - and looked to return to Monroe.
"I liked the community and I knew I wanted to live here," Armstrong said.
He worked a few different jobs, doing business work and tending bar before his brother saw an opening at Minhas Brewery in 2009 for a production manager. Armstrong called the president on Friday and interviewed that weekend.
He started with duties of scheduling, but as time passed, the job grew. The president who hired him retired two months ago and didn't get replaced. Armstrong is now the general manager of production for Minhas, coordinating hundreds of products with a single production line, requiring efficiency and planning.
"This keeps the mind engaged," Armstrong said. "There are changes and adaptions daily."
Getting involved with city government came soon after landing the Minhas job. Armstrong said he has always wondered how city government functioned. While living in Minnesota, he was involved with environmental committees, but his time there was premature. Back in Monroe, he delved in again and lost by six votes after running for alderman in 2010.
"There was disappointment in my effort," Armstrong said.
Instead of walking away, Armstrong decided instead to attend every council meeting for the next two years to stay involved. When he ran again in 2012, he won and served two terms.
Although he never planned to become the mayor, in 2016 he took the next step, saying it felt incomplete to serve two terms as alderman.
"It's a lot more involvement behind the scenes," Armstrong said. "I think Monroe, at some level, is stuck in old patterns, old habits. I'm trying to change a bit in how we look at things."
He said he cleaned up the general conduct of council meetings and brought more order to the group. He feels he's done the same with the budget process, getting people to think more and look deeper about possible changes, and hopes to engage people more in city issues.
"I think I've been successful in making people think harder," Armstrong said.
He said being directly involved has been important to him. Instead of complaining or having an idea, he feels he has an opportunity to make change and take ideas in a new direction.
"Whether or not you're successful takes work," Armstrong said. "But I have the ability to be more influential."
But even with the busyness that comes with being the mayor of Monroe, Armstrong hasn't forgotten the importance of the land around him and the degree he earned. In 2017, he started a tree-planting initiative and is currently working on a nature park. He was thrilled to plant trees all around Monroe with fourth-grade classes around Arbor Day, reaching beyond their goal.
"I'm not doing active work in the field, but this is still part of who I am," Armstrong said. "Having a green community makes people happier."
In his free time, Armstrong enjoys spending time with his wife, Josephine, and their 11-year-old son, Louis II.
Armstrong also still loves to read - mostly history books now. He and his family take a trip each year, and he enjoys biking and jogging. The year he turned 50, he decided to make a goal of losing 50 pounds, almost reaching it at 47 pounds but making the biggest difference by changing his lifestyle.
He hopes eventually to expand on the things he loves to do, like reading and spending time with family. Each year, he gives away tree seedlings to groups and individuals to plant.
His favorite quote is one from Aldo Leopold, and he knows it well: "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."
His great-great-great-great grandfather Mordecai Kelly, an Irish pioneer who settled in Monroe in the 1830s, is where his ancestry began.
In his first term as Monroe's mayor, Armstrong said he isn't sure where his interest in city government actually originated, but it's taken him on a path to lead the city where he was born and raised. That, coupled with an influencing book from the library, has him working to serve his community and care for the land his ancestors settled on so many years ago.
As a child, Armstrong said he enjoyed exploring the town and especially having fun around the fairgrounds near where he grew up. He said Monroe then was a similar place to what it is now, and he has great memories. He was a child who had a natural love for the outdoors, and he enjoyed fishing with his father in the summertime. He even got into hunting on his own.
At Monroe High School, he enjoyed his time on the wrestling team. He said he was a good student and also worked at a local grocery store and hung out with a solid group of friends - many of whom he still has. The close-knit group spent their summers baling hay for local farmers outside of town, a job he truly enjoyed.
He earned the spot as senior class president and graduated in 1983.
After graduation, that same group of friends worked hard and played hard together, he said. He enjoys still being connected to many of them.
His plan after graduation was one that developed over time. Armstrong's father, a teacher at Northside, and his mother took him and his brother to the library regularly. His father was often doing research, and Armstrong said their minds were regularly exposed to the walls lined with books.
It was among them that Armstrong discovered "Strictly for the Chickens," a book written by Frances Hamerstrom, a Wisconsin environmentalist who worked with ecologist Aldo Leopold. She and her husband studied prairie chickens in central Wisconsin. The book focused on their hardships and constant struggles, but their love for land, farm and animals thrived. Why they continued despite many hardships made Armstrong think.
"That book drove me for some reason," Armstrong said.
Armstrong was young, and he still isn't exactly sure why he decided to pick up and read that particular book, but it was their story, he said, that led him on his career path. He attended the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point for wildlife management.
He was in Stevens Point several years, he said, simply enjoying life. Despite it being lengthy, he said he never veered from his original path. He earned his degree in wildlife management in 1989 with a minor in natural resources.
He landed his first job studying nesting bald eagles in Arizona.
"It was very cool," he said with a smile. "But it didn't pay much."
Over the course of the next six years, Armstrong would hold several positions, including working at a peregrine falcon hack site and spending a summer raising penguins in Wyoming until they could fledge on their own.
He pursued jobs through local DNRs and enjoyed the work. However, it was often seasonal and while he wasn't working, he would make his way back to Monroe.
Eventually he found a company in Brodhead that did prairieland and wetland restoration. They sent him to Indiana to complete a 7,000-acre project, and he led the business, opening a field office in Minnesota for them. He was doing the work he had hoped for until 2006, when he decided he wanted the comforts and familiarity of home - and looked to return to Monroe.
"I liked the community and I knew I wanted to live here," Armstrong said.
He worked a few different jobs, doing business work and tending bar before his brother saw an opening at Minhas Brewery in 2009 for a production manager. Armstrong called the president on Friday and interviewed that weekend.
He started with duties of scheduling, but as time passed, the job grew. The president who hired him retired two months ago and didn't get replaced. Armstrong is now the general manager of production for Minhas, coordinating hundreds of products with a single production line, requiring efficiency and planning.
"This keeps the mind engaged," Armstrong said. "There are changes and adaptions daily."
Getting involved with city government came soon after landing the Minhas job. Armstrong said he has always wondered how city government functioned. While living in Minnesota, he was involved with environmental committees, but his time there was premature. Back in Monroe, he delved in again and lost by six votes after running for alderman in 2010.
"There was disappointment in my effort," Armstrong said.
Instead of walking away, Armstrong decided instead to attend every council meeting for the next two years to stay involved. When he ran again in 2012, he won and served two terms.
Although he never planned to become the mayor, in 2016 he took the next step, saying it felt incomplete to serve two terms as alderman.
"It's a lot more involvement behind the scenes," Armstrong said. "I think Monroe, at some level, is stuck in old patterns, old habits. I'm trying to change a bit in how we look at things."
He said he cleaned up the general conduct of council meetings and brought more order to the group. He feels he's done the same with the budget process, getting people to think more and look deeper about possible changes, and hopes to engage people more in city issues.
"I think I've been successful in making people think harder," Armstrong said.
He said being directly involved has been important to him. Instead of complaining or having an idea, he feels he has an opportunity to make change and take ideas in a new direction.
"Whether or not you're successful takes work," Armstrong said. "But I have the ability to be more influential."
But even with the busyness that comes with being the mayor of Monroe, Armstrong hasn't forgotten the importance of the land around him and the degree he earned. In 2017, he started a tree-planting initiative and is currently working on a nature park. He was thrilled to plant trees all around Monroe with fourth-grade classes around Arbor Day, reaching beyond their goal.
"I'm not doing active work in the field, but this is still part of who I am," Armstrong said. "Having a green community makes people happier."
In his free time, Armstrong enjoys spending time with his wife, Josephine, and their 11-year-old son, Louis II.
Armstrong also still loves to read - mostly history books now. He and his family take a trip each year, and he enjoys biking and jogging. The year he turned 50, he decided to make a goal of losing 50 pounds, almost reaching it at 47 pounds but making the biggest difference by changing his lifestyle.
He hopes eventually to expand on the things he loves to do, like reading and spending time with family. Each year, he gives away tree seedlings to groups and individuals to plant.
His favorite quote is one from Aldo Leopold, and he knows it well: "We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect."