I'm Tim Messer. I live in Naperville, Illinois, a western suburb of Chicago. I have lived in northern Illinois all my life, growing up in a town of 2,500 people called Polo.

By day, I am a Linux system administrator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. By evening and the occasional weekend, I try to be active in my community. I'm on the board of my neighborhood association, which has the Naperville Historic District in its boundaries. Previously, I spent seven years as a Planning and Zoning Commissioner for the City of Naperville, and six of those years as the PZC representative on the Historic Preservation Commission. I also serve on the alumni board of the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.

I have been told I have an unusual set of hobbies. I am a trained storm spotter and have chased tornadoes with the College of DuPage. As a ham radio operator, I lend my time and skills to the communications unit of the Naperville Emergency Management Agency, and I used to edit the newsletter for the DuPage Amateur Radio Club. I have been to all 30 Major League Baseball parks. And I love road trips: I've been to all 50 states, including all 102 counties of my home state.

The background photo was taken by Greg Hitchcock; the design of this site comes from The Personal Page.

You can if you want. I'm not really on social media much these days, but if you are resourceful, you may be able to find me. I also take pictures and put them on Flickr, but I am not very good at uploading them regularly.