IN REMEMBRANCE

It has been a bittersweet process to create this special page commemorating the classmates who have passed on—but a necessary one. It is an honor to represent them although, sadly, you will see entries that have little to no information which hopefully will be remedied by your contribution to this web site. We will post your memories and/or if you have pertinent input, the search will be re-opened to try and retrieve dates, names, etc. To submit, click here.

Our classmates have succumbed to insidious diseases and addictions that have no mercy on family or youth. Some have been responsible for their own demise in a world too cruel for sensitive souls. We’ve lost a great deal of talent and joy and heart and imagination. We have lost our friends, and therefore our connection to a part of our youth that cannot be recaptured only remembered as…

Dean John Kaulentis

Robert Althen

Sandy Joseph Asbridge

Nancy Blaine

Dean J. Bouris

Michael Bradley

Margaret J. Britton

Michael F. Carlton

Linda A. Cotteleer Anderson

Brian Gallagher

Andrew A. Gorschiek

Jo Ann Greenwood Boner

Nancy M. Guth

Mary C. Hagen

Linda S. Johnson Andrews

Scott J. Kohanzo

Scott J. Kohanzo - Obituary from Chicago Tribune as submitted by Janice and Bob Gedmin

Scott J. “Koho” Kohanzo, 58, died April 18, 2009 in Evanston Hospital.  Surrounded by friends, family and his cherished nurses; after a long and courageous battle with Leukemia. Scott was born on March 30, 1951 in Chicago to Steven Sr. and Marnee, nee Freistedt.

He attended Amundsen High School and the Community College of the Air Force. Scott was a graduate of the Arlington Heights Fire Academy and the Paramedic Program at Northwest Community Hospital.  He served his country in the United States Air Force as a Crash Rescue Firefighter stationed in Thailand and New Mexico.  He then served as a Federal Firefighter until becoming a member of the Palatine Fire Department on January 5, 1981.  He proudly served as a firefighter paramedic until his retirement on April 2, 2001.  Scott then worked as an independent contractor, as well as an HVAC technician for Allied Heating and Cooling in Palatine.  Scott was a truly unique character best described as a diamond in the rough.  He will be fondly remembered as an unconditional friend, a very capable private pilot, farmer, handyman and Mr. Fix-It, with a quick wit and keen sense of humor.  A guy with a tough exterior, he had a great affinity with animals, kids and old people.  Over all else, Scott was a rock solid firefighter paramedic and man.  He believed hard work won’t kill you.  Scott is predeceased by his parents.  He is survived by his best friend and loving companion, Deanna; his brother, Steven Jr. (Christine) Kohanzo of Palatine; his nephews, David and Daniel; one grand-niece and six grand-nephews; and his close friend, Bob Dodson.  Scott is also survived by his beloved Palatine Fire Department from where he retired eight years ago, but always remained faithful and in many ways never left, always seeing his brothers on the department as his close family.  Scott will be deeply missed by all who knew him.

There was no formal services as Scott willed his body to medical research in the hope that doing so may one day bring a cure to others with Leukemia.  An informal picnic will be held at Scott’s farm on May 16 at 3 p.m., where, in accordance with his wishes, his friends will gather to share friendship, beer, cigars, Jack Daniels and a lot of great stories.

Michael L. Krawzak

Casey C. Kruczek

Peter Limunovic

Carol R. Nelson Hauser

Richard Joseph O'Brien

Patricia S. Pantano Gustafson

Lynn Rizzo Gaffney

Lynn's Biography, page 1

Lynn's Biography, page 2

Lynn's Biography, last page 3 of 3

Bruce E. Ronnbeck

Janine M. Sandberg

Susan E. Santeler Ertl

Michael J. Tappin

Fond Memories of Mike

In closing:

Charles Darwin struggled his lifetime to reconcile religious beliefs of his day with his theory of evolution. There is a new biography on the life of Charles Darwin in which the author, Gopnik, explores the reason why Darwin did not publish his theory of evolution until very late in his life. That perhaps, Darwin was protecting his family from what surely would have been an outraged public of the early-1800s. However, the author believes, upon the death of his beloved ten-year old daughter Annie, he began to eventually find clarity with the laws of nature and God.

Gopnik states, “He knew so deeply and so personally and viscerally what death was now after Annie’s loss, and yet, in his writing you see him affirming over and over this circle, the endless unfolding of life. In the last pages of “On the Origin of Species,” he takes the reader to a beautiful forest and demonstrates, especially that humans, who can contemplate and love the things of the forest, are all products of millions of years of competition, struggle, famine and death –the forest and this struggle will continue. So life will keep evolving new forms and new shapes. He is saying there are two things that are true: One is that everything dies, and things die for no reason and to no apparent end. And their death is painful. And, yet that process of living and dying produces something amazing and beautiful and astonishing. Darwin himself concludes, ‘There is grandeur in this view of life…and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.’”

Namaste

A VFW MEMORIAL PRAYER ADAPTED FOR ALL OUR FALLEN ALUMNI

Posted at the request of Ed & Karen Kwiatowski

The march of our departed alumni is over and they lieth down in the house appointed for all the living. In such an hour as ye think not, the final summons may come which no one disobeys.

It seems fitting that we should leave our departed alumni to rest under the arching sky, as they did in days gone by.

May each of us, when our voyages, battles of life and missions are over, find a welcome in that region of the blest where there is no more storm tossed sea, nor scorching battlefield, nor dangerous skies.

Our departed alumni are in the hands of our heavenly father, and “God giveth his beloved sleep.”

Let each one be so loyal to every virtue, so true to every friendship, so faithful in the remaining marches, that we will be ready to fall out and take their place in the great review hereafter; not in doubt but with faith that the merciful captain of our salvation will call them to that family which on earth and in heaven remains unbroken.