Meet Your Neighbor Steve Eckley from Oquawka.
Steve is in his 10th year at Shipley Ready Mix in Burlington, Iowa, and is also an entrepreneur.
Steve has been working on an invention he calls, The Bacon Maker, for the past 5 years. The idea originally came from his wife, Debra when she was frustrated trying to cook bacon in the microwave.
The Bacon Maker cooks approximately 1 pound of bacon at a time in the microwave.
The Bacon Maker can cook up to 5 pounds of bacon in a hour and 15 to 20 minutes. It is now patented and Steve is pursuing different avenues of investors as he would like to partner up with a large company.
He was born in Chanute, Kansas and was raised in the Monmouth, Oquawka, Biggsville, Alexis and the Lincoln areas.
When Steve attended Alexis Grade School his dad was the principal. He experienced some interesting things that happened during that time.
Steve graduated from Lincoln High School in 1975 and from Monmouth College in 1979 with a business administration major.
He has been married to the former Debra Tee for 13 years.
His parents are John and Peg Eckley who reside part time in Oquawka and and part time in Florida.
He has three brothers, John (Toni) who lives in Bloomington, George (Tina) who lives in Greenville, South Carolina, Rob (Deb) who lives in Cordova, Alaska; and one sister Patti (Terry) Cook who resides near Monmouth.
Steve and Debra live on the river and enjoy boating, dogs and golfing.