Sunday, August 23, 2026

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: STEPHENSON RIFE ATTORNEYS

Community members attend a book signing by Shelbyville High School alumnus Joe Harlan yesterday at the Boys & Girls Club of Shelbyville. Harlan is the author of “You Can Go Anywhere in the World From Shelbyville, Indiana: A True Story of Grit, Determination, and the Belief That Where You Start Doesn’t Limit Where You Go.” Top left: Harlan and his wife, Theresa, are joined by members of her family. In the back row, from left, are Troy and Holly Harmon and Josh Tucker; front row, Teygan Harmon, Chandler Tucker and Kameron Tucker; seated, Theresa and Joe Harlan. Top right: Jonny Hoover, accompanied by his mother, Nella Hoover, shakes Harlan’s hand. Bottom left: Gerald and Cathy Clements receive a signed book. Bottom right: Rick Moorhead receives a signed copy. | photos by JACK BOYCE

Harlan also appears on The Addison Times podcast with host Kristiaan Rawlings in the following episode to talk about his life and the book.

Editor’s note: The following article is based on an interview with Shelbyville High School alumnus Joe Harlan for the latest episode of The Addison Times podcast. The full 36-minute interview is posted above.

Joe Harlan never expected Shelbyville to be the starting point for a career that would take him around the world.

“I wasn’t in a space where I knew there was a big world out there,” Harlan, a 1977 Shelbyville High School graduate, said. “I hate to tell on myself, but I never thought I’d move out of the state of Indiana.”

Instead, Harlan and his wife, Theresa, would move 18 to 20 times during his career, including international assignments in Hong Kong, China, Japan and Europe. After earning a finance degree from Indiana University, Harlan spent 20 years with General Electric before moving to 3M for 10 years and finishing his career with Dow Chemical.

That journey provides the foundation for Harlan’s new book, “You Can Go Anywhere in the World From Shelbyville, Indiana: A True Story of Grit, Determination, and the Belief That Where You Start Doesn’t Limit Where You Go.”

But Harlan said the book is less about where he went than about convincing others of where they can go.

“I really wanted to write it because I want to find that kid who thinks they can’t but can be convinced they can,” Harlan said.

Harlan is not profiting from the book. All proceeds go to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Shelby County, where he serves as board president.

“You don’t have to go anywhere in the world,” Harlan said. “You can stay here in Shelbyville, Indiana, but do what you want to do.”

He hopes the book reaches not only young people but also the parents, teachers, coaches and mentors who influence them. If the book helps inspire even one young person, Harlan said, writing it will have been worthwhile.

Harlan’s own path was not without significant obstacles. His grandfather died when Harlan was young, his family’s home later burned and Harlan was diagnosed with familial adenomatous polyposis, a hereditary condition that has affected several members of his family. He missed half of his senior year of high school after undergoing major surgery.

Those experiences helped shape one of the book’s central messages: setbacks do not have to determine what happens next.

“No matter if you do get knocked down, don’t quit,” Harlan said. “Just keep going.”

Harlan said his health also influenced the pace at which he approached life and his willingness to take opportunities when they appeared.

“I always felt like I was living on borrowed time,” he said. “And I still do to this day.”

That mindset contributed to a career in which Harlan frequently stepped outside what was familiar.

When he was offered an opportunity in Hong Kong, for example, Harlan said he knew little about the place before agreeing to go. Over time, he began to recognize that some of his best opportunities existed precisely because other people were reluctant to take them.

“If you really want to expand your horizons professionally and personally, in any aspect of your life, get out of your comfort zone,” Harlan said.

Doing so, he said, “expands your horizons and expands your capabilities as a person personally and professionally.”

Long before his international career, however, one of Harlan’s first opportunities came in Shelbyville.

While Harlan was attending Indiana University, Theresa was working at a grocery store when then-Mayor Dan Theobald came in. She told Theobald her boyfriend would soon be a senior at IU and was looking for work.

Theobald told her to send Harlan to see him. Harlan was incredulous. He nevertheless went to City Hall and was given an opportunity to help in the clerk-treasurer’s office with the city’s 1981 budget. The work exposed him to budgeting, competing departmental priorities and, most importantly, working with people.

“It helped me at least start to think that I could do something,” Harlan said. “And that’s what a lot of people need sometimes is just a little bit of confidence.”

Harlan jokes that Theobald did not actually give him his first job.

“It was my wife,” he said, laughing.

Other lessons came from the Boys & Girls Club, an institution Harlan credits with helping shape his childhood. At the club, he learned that freedom came with rules and expectations. Harlan recalled once being suspended for two weeks by longtime club leader “Swifty” Bennett after an indiscretion. Harlan returned the next day because he had nowhere else to go.

After Harlan explained that, Bennett asked whether he had learned his lesson. When Harlan said he had, Bennett allowed him to stay.

“It was leadership,” Harlan said. “And again, back to the guardrails, back to the rules, back to the disciplines.”

Today, Harlan views the Boys & Girls Club as a critical organization for young people.

“Please also think of it as a community center for Shelby County because that’s what it is,” he said.

Harlan said the club must continue evolving based not on what adults necessarily prefer.

“It’s a call of what the kids need, what they want, what will nurture them, what will educate them, what will make them better, useful community citizens,” he said.

Harlan also writes about the danger of becoming too comfortable.

“Complacency is the absolute enemy of success,” he said.

That applies not only to individuals, Harlan said, but to organizations and their leaders. People who become bored or comfortable can stop growing, while successful people sometimes abandon the habits that made them successful in the first place.

Looking back on a career that included managing businesses and employees around the world, Harlan said he is proudest not of a particular position or business accomplishment, but of the way he tried to conduct himself.

“Compliance and integrity was always the most important thing,” he said. “The right thing sometimes is not the most popular thing. But if it’s the right thing to do, you have to do it because you’re the leader.”

His advice is to be honest, seek input from others and face problems rather than ignore them.

“Face reality,” Harlan said. “But do it within the boundaries of compliance and integrity.”

Now, after a career that took him far beyond the place where he started, Harlan has returned much of his attention to Shelbyville and its young people.

And that brings the story back to the reason he wrote the book in the first place.

“Just listen because somebody’s already done what you’ve done and made all the mistakes,” he said.

For Harlan, helping the next generation recognize those possibilities is another way of investing in the community where his own story began.

“The education and the quality of initiative that we can instill in these kids,” he said, “that’s what gets us out of it. And so I’m fully committed.”

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: FULL CANOPY REAL ESTATE

• Shelbyville High School runners Macey Robbins and America Leon set a school record Saturday at the Plainfield Cross Country Relays, completing the 3-mile partner relay in 38 minutes, 29.96 seconds. The pair finished 10th overall, the best finish by a Shelbyville girls duo in the event, and broke the previous school record, set in 2024, by 57 seconds. On the boys side, Eden Ortega and Shia Veach finished 20th in 31:52.57, the second-fastest time in school history and about 27 seconds shy of the school record.

• Shelby County Cornstock is set for Sunday, Sept. 6, starting at 11 a.m. and ending at midnight. The band schedule is here.

• HOOSIER NEWS: Kroger has completed a $1.7 million remodel of its Greencastle store at 821 Indianapolis Road, part of a $200 million investment in projects across the company’s Central Division. The upgrades include a newly painted foyer, repolished floors and updated tables, display cases and other fixtures throughout the store, which opened in 1996. About 15 Kroger stores in the division are being remodeled this year, including the Martinsville location, which will celebrate completion of its renovations Sept. 10. (IndyStar)

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• The Addison Times is pleased to offer free milestone announcements. Forms are available here: Engagement Announcement, Wedding Announcement and Anniversary Announcement.

This Week in Shelby County, a cartoon feature illustrated by George L. Stubbs for 38 years, is reproduced with permission of the Shelby County Historical Society and the Stubbs family.

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: MAJOR HEALTH PARTNERS

Local headlines reported on or around this date in Shelby County history. Selections are curated by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials. | research by MYRON RAWLINGS

2016: The Morristown Town Council recognized Lisa Bridges, Northeastern Community Foundation ball pit winner; Anthony Muir, winner of the 10th annual adult derby; and Reece Carlton, winner of the Scout Derby race.

2006: City Council took the initial steps to obtain financing to create a 186-acre park on the east side of the city. Council member Jeff Sponsel recommended that the 10-year financing option should be chosen and would be an overall savings to homeowners.

1996: The Boys Scouts of America rejected taking over Roger Shaw Park. The Shelbyville Parks and Recreation Department had been considering alternatives to continuing to operate the park. Shaw Park was six miles north of the city on County Road 600 N.

1986: Tony Nading, a Southwestern High School graduate, won the Bears of Blue River Festival five-kilometer race on East Washington Street. The festival lineup would feature country-western singer Dan Seals, who had been nominated in two categories for the 20th annual Country Music Association awards.

1976: Officials with The Rec announced the 33-year-old institution in Shelby County would close Sept. 1 due to declining attendance. One Rec official cited more teenagers driving, more activities in the region and girls sports as reasons for the decline. “And don’t forget the impact of television,” the official said. The official also noted that a drug arrest in the city parking lot adjacent to the Rec had been referred to in The Shelbyville News as “the Rec parking lot,” which had hurt perceptions among parents. The center had been started at the northeast corner of Harrison and Hendricks in September 1943 and later moved to 41 W. Franklin St.

1966: Joseph Landwerlen, 580 W. Taylor St., was hired by Meredith Mann as the new full-time driver for the city ambulance. Landwerlen had been a truck driver for Borden’s Ice Cream for 20 years.

1956: Police officer Robert Phares suffered a partial paralysis, apparently from a back ailment, while on patrol duty in a city police car. He was taken to Major Hospital for treatment.

Shelbyville was selected as a site for one of 82 very high frequency omnidirectional radio range installations in the Civil Aeronautics Administration’s plans to make the nation’s airways safer. The VHF omnidirectional radio range was a type of “beam” device.

1946: Indiana Gov. Ralph Gates announced the state would step up to ensure kids without lunch funds would continue to receive them despite the federal government offloading the program. In Shelby County, 11 of the 14 rural schools had received funds from the lunch program.

1936: Work on the new Union Township Consolidated School was completed, Ralph Adams, township attorney, announced. Ten more days were needed to install chairs and desks, and then the school would open for the term. Carroll Pitts, Edward Kuhn and John R. Haehl were overseeing installation of the furnishings.

1926: The county’s free gravel road repair fund tax levy was fixed at 9 cents, a 2-cent increase. The 7-cent rate had not been sufficient to maintain roads, county highway superintendent Charles Benefiel said.

ADDISON TIMES MAJOR SPONSOR: Freeman Family Funeral Homes & Crematory

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