John Robert Wiltgen

John Robert Wiltgen started writing as soon as his mother bought him a used Underwood typewriter at a garage sale. At middle school he was editor of the school newspaper. In Arlington Heights High School, from which he graduated in 3 years, he studied art, literature, creative writing, and theater. And, oh yes, business.

When he was seventeen, he was promoted to manager of the Midwest region's model store for the Glidden Paint Company. In the evenings he studied interior design despite his mother's pleas he should be an accountant.

"You can always get a job as an accountant," she argued.

To no one's surprise he did not take her advice. He's a Leo. Instead he quit his lucrative job at the paint store to attend design school full-time. After a brief stint at Ray Vogue School of Design, the headmaster asked him to clean out his locker, stop paying his monthly tuition installments and never return. He was eighteen years old when he embarked on his career as a residential designer and never looked back.

It's nearly impossible to build a luxury design firm while living in the moldy basement of your parent's modest suburban home. The challenges grew significantly when he lost his sight a brief time later. After all, who wants to hire a blind decorator? At twenty-two John was diagnosed with retinopathy - damage to the retina caused by abnormal blood flow - a complication of diabetes. And though diabetic retinopathy is the leading cause of blindness in working-aged people it did not stop John from building his brand as a luxury home design professional.

Despite a four-year period of blindness, followed by a kidney transplant, three heart attacks and finally, his battle against cellulitis and osteomyelitis resulting in a below the knee amputation John continued to grow his residential interior design firm. He obsessed over making his clients world's beautiful taking him across North America and halfway around the world - from Chicago's Gold Coast to Africa's Cote d'Ivoire. His firm name is synonymous with its reputation for excellence and superior quality in design, styling, and craftsmanship.

With very little schooling, John learned by doing. His night schoolteacher told him, "if you want to learn how to build a house - go out and build one." With that advice John went from creating dramatic interiors to acting as the general contractor for his ingenious redesign of homes to building them from the ground up, designing pools, pool houses, and gardens. He is a true Renaissance man.

His commissions have been featured in over two hundred newspaper and magazine articles including Newsweek - an unlikely place to find a copy about a residential home designer. His work also appears in numerous hardcover books. He has appeared on HGTV's Homes Cross America, I Want That! Baths, I want That! Kitchens, and NBC's Open House as well as Fox and WTTW TVs. A comprehensive library of JRWD placements can be viewed at www.jrwdesign/press.com and/or the YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=john+robert+wiltgen.

Accolades come Wiltgen's way regularly. Starting in 1991 when he was the youngest designer to receive the Chicago Merchandise Mart's "Outstanding Achievement in the Design Profession" award his completed projects have earned forty-five prestigious honors. He has been an active supporter of many non-for-profits including the Chicago Academy for the Arts who presented him with the Irv and Essee Kupcinet Leadership Award. Additionally, he was a fundraiser for the Better Boys Foundation, American Diabetes Association, Chicago Diabetes Project, International Interior Design Association, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and the Steve and Marjorie Harvey Foundation.

John's expert opinion is valued amongst his peers. He has judged assorted competitions including an art show of emerging artists in Chelsea (NYC) and various design and home builder association competitions. His firm created contests for design students of Columbia College Chicago.

Now sixty-three, he is a legend in the world of residential design and lectures on that topic. He retired in 2017 after spending twenty-one days in ICU with four diverse kinds of pneumonia. In April of 2020 he was hospitalized with COVID 19 for fifteen days.

About his life John likes to quote Elbert Hubbard, an American writer born in 1857, raised in Illinois, who wrote, "Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out alive."

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