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Scott Stein, son of CBC Board Member and CBC Past President Steve Stein, of Stein, Ray & Harris.
unday October 10, 2004, found a field of some 40,000 registrants begin the 27th Annual
LaSalle Bank Chicago Marathon at Grant Park. On the other end, 33,125 finishers completed
the grueling 26.2-mile course.
n a sense, there were really 40,000 different stories to tell. For Chicagoans Steve and
Scott Stein, though, the tale began 20 years ago with a battle against leukemia. It's a
story of victory over adversity.
cott and Steve Stein are a father-and-son marathon team that never previously ran the
26-mile race before. But on a Sunday in October, they did. However, the grueling test
of their run was really nothing when compared to the race that they once faced, when
Scott was just four years old.
cott recalls today, "Twenty years ago, I was diagnosed with leukemia and went into
treatment at Children's Memorial Hospital. I was treated for three years and, at that
time, the life expectancy of children such as myself was about 60 percent that they
would survive."
ut Scott Stein did survive, and now he lives with the good chance that his disease
will never return. This is the kind of backdrop against which he and his father
prepared to run side-by-side for twenty six miles. This was, of course, an impossible
dream twenty years ago.
he dream in those days was simply that Scott would live and have a life...not that
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he might dream about a wonderful life and be able run marathons. "This so exceeds
whatever you could have hoped for," observes Steve Stein, his father.
teve, a lawyer, has been a distance runner for seven years. His son Scott, who works
for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, just began training for the Marathon six months ago.
teve notes, "To me it's just another four hours we can spend talking together because
every minute is precious when it just gets to be he and I alone."
cott has his own take. "It's really a physical and mental challenge that we can
overcome together, but also something we can do for the other families that are
going through what we went through twenty years ago."
inners on Sunday finished in a little over two hours. Scott and Steve planned to
finish in a bit under five hours. But in their plan, it's still first place, and
that's a victory.
cott worried about breaking down beforehand. "I have a feeling," he remarked,
"that I'm going to break down. It's going to be very emotional. It's going to mean
so much to me that I'm with him and the whole family."
he bottom line for this great personal effort also carried financial implications
for Scott, Steve, and the other 450 runners of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society,
who raised a million and a half dollars for their cause by running the Chicago
Marathon. Call it determination, call it nerve, or just say these folks want
a win on their own terms. Any way you characterize it, this is a triumph of the
will. Who could ask for anything more?
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ach year, CBC recognizes one individual for outstanding contributions to the Building
Industry with the Award of Honor. This year, Alvin Gorman, Chairman of Power Construction
Company, was selected as the tenth recipient of this prestigious award.
r. Gorman has more than 42 years of experience in institutional, commercial and health
care construction projects, all in the Chicagoland area. Al began his career with Power
in 1962. Over the years, he has served in every management and leadership role in the
company. His guidance helped Power Construction become an outstanding provider of
construction management and general contracting services in Chicago.
