By Mary Louise Speer
Quad City Times

The O’Rourke brothers have come a long way since their modest beginnings of selling citizen band, or CB, radios from the family farm in the 1960s.

The brothers — Jeff, Joe and James — purchased the old Wal-Mart building at 3785 Elmore Ave., Davenport, eight months ago. Transforming the building into Clover Leaf Commons required many hours of work and planning, Jeff said.

Light flows in through the windows lining the front exterior and management of Klavohn’s Home Furnishings (based in Geneseo) and Iowa Oriental Rug are looking forward to opening their doors in the next month.

The O’Rourke Sales Company is located on the building’s north side with a mixture of new upscale office space, showroom and warehouse area.

James O’Rourke, of Iowa City and the oldest of the six siblings, remembers their less prosperous days of growing up on a farm in North English, Iowa. “We were so poor,” he reflected. “I think it’s fantastic. I’m so proud of the brothers, and we’ve come so far.”

6 O’Rourke Brothers

James was left a paraplegic at age 23 after an accident. He remained in the hospital a year and a half and remembers many long, lonely hours after coming home. To help fill the void, Leo, his dad, bought James a CB radio.

That radio connected him to the greater world and helped him find an opportunity to support himself by selling CB radios for a friend. Six months later, he decided to sell radios on his own. “The whole family pitched in to do this,” he said.

He remembers his younger brothers and parents (Theresa and Leo) staying up late to help run the growing business. Their local banker advanced them money for purchasing radios, and the brothers promptly repaid the informal loans. “When you tell someone something, you keep your word,” James said.

Leo died in 1971, and the family worked even harder to make the business a go.

Eventually the O’Rourkes became a national distributor of appliances, consumer electronics, satellite systems and TVs. They were based at 1202 and 1205 4th Avenue, Moline, before moving to Davenport in September. The company employs 35 people locally and 150 nationwide.

“We still sell a few CB radios but not very many,” Jeff said. Brothers Jeff and Joe are the working partners these days but keep in daily contact with James.

The three brothers like “throwing ideas around together” before making decisions.

Jeff remembers watching James’ reaction when viewing the old Wal-Mart building for the first time.

“He was amazed when we bought the building and wondering ‘what do we do?’ ” Jeff said.

Jeff and Joe split the daily operations. Joe oversees the personnel department and Jeff utilizes his electronics expertise in sales. “We supply a lot of rent-to-own stores,” Jeff said.

Orders are stored in the warehouse before shipment. The brothers hope to find a third tenant soon for the remaining 10,000-square-foot store and construct a free-standing building and restaurant in front. “We own clear to Elmore, and we have a restaurant interested in coming in,” he said.

High definition, or HD, TVs and electronically controlled appliances are displayed in the showroom. Jeff clicks a remote control and shows the clear images produced by 50-inch HD TV.

“We’re not selling projection TVs any more. This is an HD TV and it’s like looking out a window on a 50-inch plasma screen,” he said.

Jeff has pictures of his wife, Cindy, and their children, Jacob, 13, and Jordan, 10 displayed in his office. They were very supportive during the time-consuming renovation process, he said. The brothers closed on the Wal-Mart building last January.

Jeff says being involved in the family business is a natural fit for him. “I never planned to go into farming. Growing up on a farm gave me a good work ethic. I tell my kids it was a great life, and I’ll never discount it,” Jeff said.

He added, “I love being here. It’s so much easier running our business. The employees all love it, and it’s so much easier for the trucks to reach us.”

©Quad City Times
Reproduced with permission (64656791jeff)