Don Ilse to retire after 36 years with Anoka County

Don Ilse, the man in charge of Anoka County's Human Services division, recently announced that he'll retire from his post at the end of January after more than 36 years with the county.

Ilse, 63, who started out working at the juvenile center in 1978, will spend his retirement doing more of the things he loves: canoeing, running and spending time with family.

"It's simply my time to go," Ilse said. "I realized that I am not going to be able to go at 110 percent. I'm going to have to dial back somewhere, and I thought it's better to leave when you want to leave. It's been one heck of a ride."

The county is looking in-house to fill his position.

Ilse became head of the Human Services division in 2011. Since his appointment at the end of April 2011, he inherited a staff of about 1,000, along with a state government shutdown and several county administrative changes.

"The first year was a very tumultuous time, with all the changes that occurred," he said. "Tremendous amount of change. What changed for me is that I've learned to understand Human Services much better than I did at that point."

Ilse, who moved to Human Services after years working in Community Corrections, compared his first few months on the job to being in a foreign country — something he knows well. The Tower, Minn., native, took eight years to graduate from Minneapolis' Augsburg College to travel the world.

With a degree in hand in 1978, Ilse went job hunting in Anoka County. He applied for a job at the juvenile center. He was interviewed by three people, including Jerry Soma — the current county administrator. Soma preceded Ilse in corrections and as division manager of Human Services.

Soma said Ilse left "on a trip around the world" after a year on the job (at that time the county didn't have a leave-of-absence policy).

"So he left us, and then came back," Soma said. "And there was no question in our mind that we wanted Don back, because he was an integral part of what we were doing there. He's an excellent employee and has been ever since then."

Through a number of jobs within the department, he worked as a probation officer and with the courts, dealing with juveniles and then adults. In 1996, Ilse was appointed director of field services before managing Human Services in 2011.

He has been described by many as having a calm demeanor, especially when he took over the Human Services staff, which was nearly 10 times as big as his previous one.

Come February, Ilse will spend a few months with his wife, Joyce, and extended family in Arizona.

Then he'll get back to canoeing.

"But I hope to one day travel the world again. And much to my wife's consternation, I know, when it's time to go to Canada and get into the canoe. It's my passion, but it's more than that," Ilse said in a 2011 interview. "There's something about the water. There's something about canoeing and getting away."

Karen Zamora • 612-673-4647