Better Boys Foundation - Chicago, Illinois

Joe Kellman was born in Chicago and grew up in the Lawndale neighborhood.

His father opened a small glass shop, Globe Glass, in 1916. Because of economic conditions during the depression, Joe was forced to drop out of school after completing the eighth grade to work full time at his father’s shop.

After his father’s death, Joe and his brother Morrie took over the glass business until they dissolved their partnership in 1950. Morrie took the manufacturing division of the business and Joe took two small retail glass shops. Over the next 45 years, the two shops grew into The Globe Group, at that time the country’s largest privately owned auto glass chain.

Joe is a man of many interests and one of his favorites is horseracing. Sparked by handicapping for his father during weekly visits to the track, Joe eventually bred his own championship racehorse. Joe named his horse “Shecky Greene” after Chicago’s own comedian and BBF Celebrity Roaster. Joe’s famous sprinter went on to gain international fame by winning the Eclipse Award as 1973 Sprint Champion, the same year he ran in the Kentucky Derby and set the pace for Secretariat in his record run.

Joe has also always loved the sport of boxing and promoted and managed boxers during the 1960s. His interest in boxing and his long-burning desire to put something back into his old neighborhood began his lifetime of civic involvement.

In 1961, with the help of Buddy Hackett, Joe founded the Better Boys Foundation which housed the Archie Moore Boxing Gym in Lawndale – one of the nation’s most disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods. Joe soon saw, and was often heard to say, that “sports are a lure, not a cure” and that it would surely take more than a boxing program to give young boys an opportunity to improve their lives.

For the last 40 years the BBF Family – a dedicated Board of Directors and extremely capable staff – has grown to meet the needs of the residents of Lawndale, and has transformed the lives of thousands of young people and their families.

The Corporate/Community Schools of America (CCSA)
In 1988, the same insight, vision and civic commitment inspired Joe to co-found, along with Vernon Loucks, Jr., Chairman and CEO of Baxter International, the Corporate/Community Schools of America (CCSA). The flagship elementary school, located in North Lawndale, is the country’s first business-sponsored elementary school designed to prove that by using techniques that are common in business – an area in which this country has been so successful – we can improve our inner-city public education system – the area in which we have fallen into abject failure.

The Chicago Schools Turnaround Commission
Through the success of the Corporate Community Schools of America, Joe gained the support of the Illinois General Assembly in creating The Chicago Schools Turnaround Commission. The Commission was charged with examining ways to achieve a revolutionary turnaround of Chicago’s public school system, including the feasibility of implementing a full-time, paid, racially-balanced board of skilled people to manage the system’s revitalization.

Joe’s work in the inner-city has been featured in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Fortune Magazine, Forbes Magazine, Newsweek, Reader’s Digest, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Wall Street Journal, CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, ABC Network’s 2020, and most of Chicago’s radio and television stations.

Joe Kellman’s numerous awards and honors include an honorary doctorate degree from National Lewis University; the first Socially Responsible Entrepreneur of the Year Award given by Inc. Magazine, Ernst & Young and Merrill, Lynch & Co.; the Raoul Wallenberg Award; a special award given by Parent Magazine; the national Glass Association’s Community Service Award; and Loyola University’s Civic Award.

In addition, he has served as past president of the Greater Lawndale Conversation Commission; Board Director for Special Children’s Charities; Board Member for Business and Professional People in the Public Interest (BPI); member of the National Glass Association/Auto Glass Industry Council; and is a former commissioner of the Illinois Racing Board.

Though Joe and his wife Lou Anne still maintain a residence in Chicago, they now live in San Diego, California. They devote many happy hours to their friends, children and grandchildren, but both remain active in the charitable work that has defined Joe’s long and rich life—most especially the work of BBF.