Duane Schroeder was raised in Roanoke, IL, the youngest of five children.  He graduated from Roanoke-Benson High School in 1974.  He began his college career at Eureka College, the first year basketball coach Dave Darnell came to the college.  Duane later went onto Illinois Central College for his associate degree and finished his BS degree in Business Administration at Illinois State University.

He married his high school sweetheart Rachel Sauder and raised five children in Roanoke.  They have twelve grandchildren.  He is a member of the Roanoke Apostolic Christian Church of Roanoke where he taught Sunday school and was a board member of the Apostolic Christian Home of Roanoke.

Duane began his working career in agriculture with W. R. Grace & Co. and later joined IBM in a technical/marketing position as a systems engineer.  With a career long interest in insurance, Duane became a State Farm Insurance agent in 1989, in Roanoke, and later moved his office to Eureka, IL where he has been for twenty-six years.  He is a Crystal Excellence agent for State Farm.

He was a Paul Harris Fellow in Rotary and past president of the Roanoke and Eureka Business Association.  Duane has had a twenty-three year relationship with Advocate BroMenn Medical Center in Bloomington, IL and Advocate Eureka Hospital.  Positions he has held for the hospitals include being on the BroMenn Foundation’s board, and Governance Council, and now committee chair for the Advocate farm committee.

In his leisure time Duane enjoys fishing and hunting at their retreat, and bicycling and traveling.  Family and grandchildren are a top priority.