Ten locomotives were named for District Trustees, ten were named for commuters. The identity of ten commuters whose names would appear on ten locomotives became a game of chance ( by way of seat notices and entry forms placed in the commuter trains ). As a precaution, BN representatives decided to let the State of Illinois Governor ( the Secretary actually drew entries due to a scheduling conflict with the Governor ) select 14 names, just in case any of the first ten had names like Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck on them, or some other fictional character, who was not a BN commuter. The first name drawn was Edwin Putz. Obviously, BN personnel thought this was a fictitious name. However, the entry slips called for both an address and phone number. When checked by phone, Mr. Putz was not only an actual person, but worked on Lake Street in a print shop. Having gone through the first step unscathed, it was decided to present Mr. Putz with some recognition in a ceremony at Union Station scheduled just before rush hour one afternoon about 4:30 PM. During the week before the ceremony, your author ( Mr. Schuster ) began to hear snickers whenever the word Putz was mentioned. Finally, a clipping appeared from the American Herald newspaper published in Europe for English-speaking visitors abroad. That paper, which had earlier reported the winner of the locomotive contest as a Mr. Putz, observed rather gleefully that in the Jewish vernacular, the word putz was a sort of putdown, and actually referred to a part of the male anatomy. After your author read the article, he asked Forester DuSell ( BN Manager of Commuter Operations ) to call Mr. Putz in and gently question him about the reality of his name. From that questioning, it was learned he was actually an immigrant from Europe who immigrated to this country following World War II. His actual surname in Europe was Von Putz and he was very proud of his name. So the ceremony proceeded, and great media coverage was the result.
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