Full Text of SR1487 101st General Assembly
SR1487 101ST GENERAL ASSEMBLY |
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| 1 | | SENATE RESOLUTION
| 2 | | WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to | 3 | | learn of the death of Bernard F. "Bernie" Gerl of Joliet, who | 4 | | passed away on November 7, 2020; and
| 5 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl was born in Joliet on October 12, | 6 | | 1926; he attended St. Joseph Grade School; he graduated from | 7 | | Joliet Township High School in 1944; he served in the U.S. Army | 8 | | Air Forces in the post-war Pacific Theater, where he rose to | 9 | | the rank of sergeant and served as an athletic instructor and | 10 | | baseball player; he toured the Pacific while entertaining the | 11 | | troops in the Goodwill Games against other service teams and | 12 | | traveling squads of the Major League ballplayers; he was | 13 | | honorably discharged in 1946; and
| 14 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl was signed out of high school by the | 15 | | St. Louis Cardinals in 1944 and began his baseball career | 16 | | immediately in Salisbury, Maryland, until his military service | 17 | | interrupted his career for the next two years; upon his return | 18 | | stateside, he was assigned by the Cardinals to Lynchburg, | 19 | | Virginia in 1947; he was assigned to the Duluth Dukes, the | 20 | | Cardinals Class C team, in 1948; he was named a Northern League | 21 | | All-Star; a few weeks later, he was with the Dukes when they | 22 | | were involved in one of the worst accidents in U.S. team sports | 23 | | history; their bus was hit head-on by a dry ice truck just |
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| 1 | | north of St. Paul, which resulted in an explosion that killed | 2 | | six people; he suffered critical injuries, including severe | 3 | | internal and external burns; he unsuccessfully attempted to | 4 | | resume his baseball career in Houston, Texas and Montgomery, | 5 | | Alabama in 1950; he returned to Joliet, where he took a job at | 6 | | the prison and opened a bar; during a fishing trip, he stopped | 7 | | by the ballpark in Duluth and was asked by the Dukes' manager | 8 | | to help the team for the rest of the season in 1952; he | 9 | | accepted and spent the rest of the year as a catcher in Duluth; | 10 | | he returned to Duluth in 1953; he retired from baseball and | 11 | | returned to Joliet to raise his family at the age of 27; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, In 1955, Bernie Gerl began his nearly 40-year | 13 | | career with the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chicago at the | 14 | | local bottling plant, now the site of the Crest Hill Village | 15 | | Hall; during his tenure, he managed nearly every Coca-Cola | 16 | | bottling plant in Chicago, from Niles to Markham; he retired as | 17 | | vice president in 1993; and
| 18 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl maintained an active schedule after | 19 | | retirement; he golfed several times a week; he served as a | 20 | | commissioner on the Joliet Park District Board and was | 21 | | appointed to the Joliet Plan Commission; he was a member of the | 22 | | Moose Lodge and a longtime member of the Old Timers Baseball | 23 | | Association of Will County, where he held several executive | 24 | | positions; he donated his time by restringing baseball gloves |
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| 1 | | free of charge in Joliet from 1965 to about 2010; he enjoyed | 2 | | yearly visits to see his son and family in Minnesota; he was a | 3 | | yearly visitor to the still-operating Wade Stadium in Duluth | 4 | | until 2015, where the current team, the Duluth Huskies, named a | 5 | | night in his honor, and fans were given a Bernie Gerl | 6 | | bobblehead doll; and
| 7 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl was known as one of the first | 8 | | professional catchers to wear eyeglasses and as a power hitting | 9 | | lefty with a rocket for an arm who batted clean-up for the | 10 | | Duluth Dukes; he will be remembered as a perfect example of a | 11 | | life well lived; and
| 12 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl was preceded in death by his parents, | 13 | | Andrew and Mary Rose (Terlep) Gerl; his siblings, Marie (Gib) | 14 | | Bauer, Andy (Betty) Gerl, Don (LaVerne) Gerl, and Jim (Mary) | 15 | | Gerl; his parents-in-law, Frank and Julia (Matichak) Tomac; and | 16 | | his brother-in-law, Frank (Delores) Tomac; and
| 17 | | WHEREAS, Bernie Gerl is survived by his wife of 71 years, | 18 | | Bernadine (Tomac) Gerl; his children, Bill (Patt) Gerl, Diane | 19 | | (Jim) Blackburn, and Chuck (Cindi) Gerl; his nine | 20 | | grandchildren, Bill (Dana) Gerl, Erin (Chad) Adamson, Meaghan | 21 | | Gerl, Lauren (Tim) Morris, Kevin (Sarah) Blackburn, Ryan | 22 | | Blackburn, Ben Gerl, Cate Gerl, and Adam Gerl: his nine | 23 | | great-grandchildren, Jake, Reece, Tate, Katelyn, Maddie, |
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| 1 | | Blake, Luke, Emily, and Casey; his numerous nieces and nephews; | 2 | | and his loyal friends, Harlow Lockwood, Jim Greenan, Ray | 3 | | McShane, Lou Clavenna, and Tom Dedin; therefore, be it
| 4 | | RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE ONE HUNDRED FIRST GENERAL | 5 | | ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of | 6 | | Bernard F. "Bernie" Gerl and extend our sincere condolences to | 7 | | his family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it | 8 | | further
| 9 | | RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be | 10 | | presented to the family of Bernie Gerl as an expression of our | 11 | | deepest sympathy.
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