SAC CITY — As he moved through life, Sac City native Lance Wilhelm kept adding new career directions and geographic moves. Now in retirement, Wilhelm is back in Sac City and busy with a host of volunteer activities that aid the town of 2,000 people, plus Sac County and beyond.

“This is my ninth year back. I am retired, but I’m not doing a good job of being retired,” Wilhelm said.

Kay Christian, a Sac City Museum Board of Directors member, has seen his work up close, as Wilhelm is the board president.

“He retired from teaching and kind of took over the museum. We have grown and grown,” Christian said. “He jumped in with his whole body. There’s nothing he won’t do.”

Wilhelm grew up as the oldest of three sons raised by Marilyn and Keith Wilhelm, of Sac City. Brother Brent also lives in Sac City, while Kevin lives in the Des Moines area.

Wilhelm said growing up in the 1960s and 1970s was a great time to be a kid, biking around and feeling like “you had the run of the town.”

“Small town life was pretty ideal, you had freedom. We had things that a lot of other towns didn’t have,” Wilhelm said.

After graduating with the class of 1978 from Sac City High School, he went to Iowa State University in Ames, for the first of what would become three college degrees, including a doctorate in education and technology related topics. Wilhelm’s teaching career in Iowa began at West Liberty, which was followed by 10 years in Ogden. Then he became the first technology director in the Ankeny School District.

He then veered off to teach at Arizona State University through 2006. Back in Iowa, he had technology positions of five-year durations each in Ames and at the Heartland Area Education Agency.

Wilhelm moved back to Sac City in 2016, intending to retire and help with his ailing father. But Sac Community Schools had some needs, so he worked three years in such positions as assistant athletic director. At the same time, he began volunteer roles, and now the number of organizations totals at least five.

The Sac County Museum famously houses The World’s Largest Popcorn Ball, as noted on a U.S. Highway 20 sign that draws people to the tune of about 10,000 visitors per year.

“The museum is where I spend the most time of the things I do,” Wilhelm said.

Covering about half a city block, the museum has its main building, plus about a dozen other adjacent buildings, as overseen by about 25 volunteers. A recent piece is the Marjo Building, named in honor of Marjo Hall, which has a lot of school memorabilia.

About 200 people financially contribute to the Sac City Museum on West Main Street.

“People will say this is the cleanest, freshest museum they have ever seen,” Wilhelm said.

Lots of bus groups of older people stop by, but he is gratified that a lot of young people like it, too. Wilhelm described a child from Cleveland, Ohio, recently raving about the museum.

“A lot of young people are interested in history if you can present it well,” he said.

Wilhelm said his skills in helping community groups lie in communication and prioritizing next needs and working to carry them out with other people.

“You have to be a pretty good communicator to communicate your vision and to get buy-in from people. There is a certain amount of persistence, too,” he added.

Beyond the museum, Wilhelm also serves on the Sac City Arts Council, which has an ongoing project to ensure the former auditorium in the Sac City Middle School will have future uses.

“Exposing kids to culture is great,” he said, so he’s been glad that the council has brought in a steel drum band and a group of people from the University of Iowa Writers Workshop to help teach poetry and more.

Wilhelm is president of the Sac Community School District Educational Foundation, which gives out $20,000 annually in scholarships.

Additionally, he is a member of the Sac City Chamber of Commerce, plus the 100 People Who Care About Sac County group. That is part of a series of 100 People Who Care About organizations nationally, and Wilhelm said that one delivers a lot of joy. Four times per year, the group invites charitable organizations to come and explain their needs, and a series of financial awards are announced on the spot to the most deserving projects.

The sixth organization that gets Wilhelm’s input is a Sac County Trails group, which is looking into ways to extend recreational trails to Lake View, where the 30-mile Sauk Rail Trail from Carroll ends. Other possibilities being discussed are trail links to Early, and perhaps to Auburn near Iowa Highway 175.

Additionally, the Sac County trails group members are in discussions with officials from four other counties, including Buena Vista and Clay counties, to extend the Iowa Great Lakes Trail from Dickinson County and Spencer.

Through all his efforts, Wilhelm is glad he’s helping boost the Sac City area.

“We are pretty collaborative here in Sac City,” he said.