A Life of Building: John Sawyer is still helping youth and businesses

John and Jackie Sawyer have gone to bat together on a long list of community projects. Photo by Brett Kosmider.

Entrepreneurs talk about “giving back” to the community. But John Sawyer doesn’t need to talk: He’s all action. 

Sawyer has spent most of his days building homes, launching businesses and helping others to attain their dreams, but he’s also made time to teach sports to children, coach high schoolers and develop youth programs. 

The Egg Harbor resident became a public servant for the benefit of young people almost immediately after graduating from college, and so did his wife, Jackie.

There were times when both of them missed their own kids’ games because they had other teams to coach.

“I actually started the youth football program before I had a son,” John said. “It was all about the kids – never just for our children.”

Years prior to coaching high school students, Sawyer took leadership roles in local baseball organizations and helped to establish youth football and youth softball in Northern Door. At the time, the varsity girls – other than a few who played Little League baseball – joined high school teams with no experience at all. At the first youth softball practice he held, eight girls showed up without gloves.

“We create the opportunity for kids to play,” Sawyer said. “It isn’t about them playing in high school. It isn’t about them becoming a college or Major League player. It’s learning to love the sport, and if they enjoy going to a ball game later in life and just enjoy the sport, that’s sort of the goal.”

As John reached retirement age this past winter, Jackie said he was starting to cut back. But John’s version of “doing less” still might seem incredibly hectic to his peers from Gibraltar High School’s Class of 1976. 

He was still calling on clients early this winter, for example, as a consultant for Carlson Erickson Builders, which he sold four years ago and helped to run for almost 30 years. Sawyer said he developed a “habit” of making lasting friendships with clients, business partners and acquaintances from local organizations.

During those decades, in addition to launching youth sports programs, he coached the Gibraltar High School football team to its first playoff appearance, coached and later volunteered to assist the high school baseball team, was assistant coach and head coach for two girls softball teams that won regional titles, and served on the school board for 13 years. 

Prior to buying into Carlson Erickson, Sawyer served on the board of the YMCA when it was in its infancy in Door County and helped to establish the Gibraltar Athletics Booster Club with Bill Becker in 1983.

Sawyer plans to continue as a volunteer assistant for the Gibraltar High School football team, and he and Jackie still own Champeau Flooring, her family’s business. He also remains active on the family farm south of Egg Harbor, tending to beef cattle, which he breeds and sells when they reach about 700 pounds. And there’s much more.

“He has so many irons in the fire,” Jackie said. “This is a man who’s never going to be bored in retirement – ever.”

Sawyer continues to serve as president of the Northern Door softball and Little League programs that he helped to establish, and he became president of Door County League men’s baseball this year. He also serves on the boards of Northern Sky Theater and the Friends of Plum and Pilot Islands.

Sawyer and partners Chad Kodanko – a vacation-rental agency owner – and James Larsen also own Husby’s in Sister Bay.

“I don’t know how he did it. He’s involved in so many ways,” said Larsen, referring to how much Sawyer has accomplished and how many people he’s helped.

Sawyer, in fact, has had a huge impact on Larsen’s life. Larsen’s dad, Chris, played in Door County League baseball and knew Sawyer. Chris told James that involvement in the league would help him make his most important acquaintances, and he was right. 

By the time Larsen entered the league, Sawyer was still playing as a catcher and first baseman. When the opportunity arose, Sawyer and Kodanko bought Husby’s bar and restaurant and asked Larsen to help run the place. Over time, sweat equity earned Larsen a full partnership.

Gibraltar High School baseball coach Jay Kita said Sawyer’s work with hitters and catchers for 20 years was invaluable for the varsity Vikings.

“He wants to see kids smile, but he also has a passion for them to be good,” said Kita, noting that Sawyer switched his focus from business to student-athletes at 2:30 or 3 pm every day after going to work around 5 am. 

Kita emphasized that Sawyer has always cared about getting students involved in multiple sports and extracurricular activities, and helping other people succeed in business.

“If you needed him to do something, he very seldom said no,” Kita said, such as when a friend asked Sawyer to coach a U.S. Air Force base football team two years ago in northern Italy and he spent the fall there.

“Cutting back” for Sawyer means he still gets up by 7 am to help with businesses, including the family’s newest venture: the Egg Harbor wedding venue that his daughter Katie Helscher and her husband, Mark, operate on the century-old Sawyer Farms property south of the Landmark Resort.

Sawyer has always been versatile. He was a star baseball and football player in high school before playing college baseball at UW-La Crosse. Shortly after college graduation, he and partners transformed some of the former Sawyer family farmland into the Landmark Resort. 

When economic issues and high interest rates during the early 1980s slowed sales, he got in on the ground floor of selling timeshares. Later, he and local partners worked to create timeshares at The Rushes on the west side of Kangaroo Lake.

Sawyer’s real estate and marketing abilities meshed with lessons learned from summer jobs, ranging from his work on construction crews for Carlson Erickson to a summer as a mud mixer and driving a dump truck for Joe Parent. During the early 1980s, he marketed projects and real estate for Portside Builders.

“In 1988, Don Erickson called and asked if I wanted to be involved in a project – building Pine Grove Motel,” Sawyer said. “He and I worked together for six months and enjoyed each other’s company so much that I bought into the company that he and John Carlson owned.”

All the while, Sawyer stayed active as an athlete.

“I played County League baseball until I was 50,” he said. “I always said if I didn’t play baseball on Sundays, I’d probably be working seven days a week. Baseball on Sundays in the County League was my day off.”  He also played in the Wednesday-night over-30 basketball league until he was 55.

Jackie said John missed only one Sunday League game – when they honeymooned in the Bahamas. She also stayed busy in local business and athletics, coaching Gibraltar High School volleyball during the 1980s and getting involved again when their daughters, Kimberly and Katie, got older. 

Although the Sawyers missed their own children’s games every now and then, they didn’t miss many of their activities, whether it was son Tom’s sports competitions or their daughters’ games or pageants.

Today toy boxes fill John and Jackie’s living room. The man who built so many houses for Door County residents and visitors is now making sure his grandchildren feel they’re at home away from home when they visit.