Both Mike Alft and Lew Gordon served on the Gail Borden Public Library’s Board of Trustees. Lew Gordon was an electronics engineer who has devoted his time and effort to many fundraising and planning projects in the Elgin area. These include working on Walton Island renovations, serving on the Elgin Planning and Development Commission, and fundraising for books for a library in Tanzania and cardiac equipment for Sherman Hospital. Mike Alft grew up during the Depression, and consequently moved around a lot as a child. This led to his deep interaction with books. Once he settled in Elgin, Illinois he worked as an economics teacher. He would continually keep notes about historical events or whatever he learned about a particular industry or group. Once he had enough notes about a topic he would write a book about it. He also wrote a column in the Elgin newspaper, The Courier-News, about local history, and served as mayor of Elgin.