Longtime village parks and rec director to retire after 28 years

Longtime Village of Grafton Parks and Recreation Director John Safstrom will retire Aug. 27 after nearly 28 years with the village.

Safstrom, 61, joined the village in 1992 and was the first person hired by former Village Administrator Darrell Hofland. The Village Board on July 20 accepted his retirement. 

During his tenure, Safstrom said the village has grown tremendously. 

“Highway 60 was two lanes when I started. There was no Costco or Target. Nothing was out here. There was just a bar on the corner of Highway 60 and Port Washington Road,” he said. “The village years ago started promoting its quality of life, from the school district to the police department. I think developers saw that and they started coming out here because people wanted to live here.”

Over the years, Safstrom left his mark on the village by developing many parks, the Grafton Family Aquatic Center and the Riverwalk Terrace.   

“John has dedicated many great years to the village and we will certainly miss all that he has done for our community,” Village President Jim Brunnquell said.

Safstrom said one of his biggest accomplishments was working with neighboring communities to develop shared programs. 

“When I first started, it was the old-school grassroots programs such as baseball, tee-ball and basketball. Then you had youth and club sports start and we began to shift gears by doing things more cooperatively with Port Washington and Cedarburg parks and recreation departments,” he said. 

“We started off by doing more joint programs with them and it grew into a thing of its own like the Polar Express and track program.”

Prior to joining the village, Safstrom worked as the parks and recreation director for the City of Brillion. He moved to Grafton to be closer to his wife’s family. 

“It seemed like a natural progression. The Grafton community was three times the size of where I was. Grafton turned out to be an amazing place to raise our children,” he said.

Safstrom, who was born and raised on the south side of Chicago, said his intuition led him to Wisconsin. 

“The morning after I graduated from high school, I woke up and kissed my mom on the cheek and got into a Volkswagen and drove to Wisconsin. I had some family friends out here and never moved back,” he said. 

He went on to graduate from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a community recreation degree.

Safstrom recently moved to Glendale, but he said he still wants to be part of the Grafton community after he retires by remaining on committees like Celebrate Grafton and the Grafton Parks Society, which was formed earlier this year. 

In retirement, Safstrom said, he wants to spend more time with his four grandchildren, who live in Ohio and North Carolina.

Village Administrator Jesse Thyes said he is currently updating the parks and recreation director’s job description before the village posts the position. 

“It’s been an absolute blessing to work in this community,” Safstrom said.