January 16, 2026 Local Stories in and Around St. Joseph, Illinois

10 things you don’t know about me… Brad Krall

Every week we ask an area resident to share 10 interesting facts about themselves. This week it is Brad Krall, the Branch Manager at the St. Joseph Busey Bank.

I enjoy helping people in putting them in the best financial solutions for their needs. I think at the core though I just really enjoy helping people, getting to know who they are and thru that finding out needs that I can help in fulfilling.

Where is the most interesting place you have visited? I would have to say visiting the Grand Canyon was one of the most inspiring places I have visited. How majestic and immense it is. Pictures do not do justice to it or come close to seeing it in person laid out in front of you.

Aside from my wallet, I have this small multitool card that I carry around in my wallet at all time. It’s flat so it fits like a credit card but being a multitool has come in handy quite a bit!

I used to love playing with these small plastic Smurfs posed doing different things such as singing, giving a gift, baking a pie, etc. The California Raisins would come and put on concerts for them all the time. My brothers are still upset with me that my mother sold all the old Star Wars figures that would have been worth a good amount of money now and kept the Smurf figures!

I would say the most adventurous things I have done is backpacking when I was younger with my family. We would backpack in to various National Parks for a week at a time with just what we could carry. You really learned to pack light and take only what you needed. I loved all the amazing extra things you could see hiking this way and exploring deeper in to the National Parks. I’m hoping to someday be able to do the same with my kids as they get older.

I read a lot of name books with my wife Brooke and we really liked Elias for my son and Alivia for my daughter. I also tried to think of how the initials would end up being, what it could be shortened to and nicknames that might come of it.

I think the world could do better to remember the Golden Rule. I think a lot of things we learned in Kindergarten we forget as we get older but need to remember most. Just remembering that one small (albeit big) thing can avoid a lot of conflicts and resolve a lot of issues.

One of my favorite things I have enjoyed trying to make is Potica bread. I still have not gotten it 100% right despite many attempts. My father’s side of the family is 100% Slovenian and is a delicious sweet bread desert that is like apple pie over there. It’s actually pretty challenging to get the right balance in the dough but fun to make.

I enjoy reading my Bible almost daily. The JRR Tolkien “Lord of the Rings” series is also one of my favorites.

“Jericho” was my first pet and was an orange tabby cat. As fondly as I remember Jericho I don’t think he appreciated little me chasing him around the house all the time!

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