Herman Behm (1918-2006) an auctioneer of heavy construction equipment for more than 50 years died Friday, November 17, 2006 at 88.

By Cliff Ward
Daily Herald Correspondent
Posted Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Herman Behm ~ 1918-2006

In more than 50 years as an auctioneer, Herman Behm presided over the sale of livestock, bric-a-brac, heavy construction equipment, the occasional jet airliner and even a zoo.

“Auctions were his life. They were his passion. That’s all he thought of,” fellow auctioneer Bill Obenauf said.

“He was a wheeler-dealer his whole life,” a former associate, Gerri Sorensen, said.

Behm, a lifelong Lake County resident who hollered, “Sold!” hundreds of thousands of times at perhaps 10,000 auctions, died Friday at 88.

He was born in Fremont Center on a farm on March 26, 1918, to Albert and Anna Wagner Behm. Music ran in the family, and young Herman got a set of drums at 9 and was soon playing them for the Behm Family Orchestra, whose members included a rotating lineup of his brothers and parents as they played dance music throughout Lake County in the 1920s and ’30s.

At 15, he started his own company, hauling milk in a 1926 Model T Ford truck. It eventually grew to 44 employees, and he later sold the business and then managed it. In 1940, he wed Edna Volling, a young woman from Lake Zurich he met at a local dance. They settled in Grayslake.

Kay Meisinger, one of their two daughters, said she’s not sure how her dad got the auction bug, though the farm auction was a staple of rural life. In 1948, Mr. Behm took the course at what was then called Reisch College of Auctioneering in Mason City, Iowa, and he was off from there.

By the early 1950s, he operated a livestock and general merchandise auction barn in Antioch. By 1958, the family settled in Antioch and Edna took an active part in the business. Kay began clerking at her dad’s auction when she was 12. She met her future husband, Bob Meisinger, at an auction. Thanks to Herman’s influence, Bob eventually became an auctioneer, too.

In 1964, Mr. Behm was involved in a serious auto accident that required months of recovery for the shattered bones in his legs.

“The doctors said he would never walk again, but he said he would never be in a wheelchair and he never sat down in one,” Kay said. “He pretty much walked until the day he died.”

About that time, Mr. Behm took a job with Thorp Sales and Finance Corp., which required a great deal of travel as an auctioneer. Even so, he always found time to help out around the community.

Thirty years ago, the Antioch rescue squad approached Behm about conducting a charity auction, and he enthusiastically agreed. Wayne Soczak, the chief of the squad, estimates that Mr. Behm’s efforts raised $1 million.

Mr. Behm would spend literally hours at the podium without break during the annual auction.

“As an auctioneer he was like an actor as well, keeping the crowd engaged,” Sobczak said.

But his daughter said Mr. Behm’s aptitude for auction was simple: “Either you have it, or you don’t have it.”

But a former resident said it was Behm’s ability to listen — not just talk — that made him special.

“He was a joy to be around. He would always listen to what people had to say, and always showed an interest in them and took time to hear them,” Kenneth Mazzuca said.

Mr. Behm is survived by his wife, Edna, and his daughters, Kay Meisinger and Connie Harris.

 A Mass of Christian burial will be celebrated at 11 a.m. today at St. Mary of the Annunciation Church, 22333 W. Erhart Road, Fremont Center, Mundelein. Interment will be in the parish cemetery.