Man of many talents loved opera, traveling

After selling his business, Jerome J. Gabriel of St. Charles packed a lot of traveling into four years of retirement from 1997 to 2001.

He and his wife Beth biked in Italy and in several western states. They also enjoyed canoeing and camping.

It was a natural progression for Mr. Gabriel, who was a marathon runner until the mid-1990s, completing several marathons and even many triathlons.

Mr. Gabriel died Monday at age 69, one year after being diagnosed with cancer.

A memorial celebration will be at 3 p.m. April 19 in the picnic shelter at LeRoy Oakes Forest Preserve in St. Charles.

"He was a great husband, he always did the right thing, the fair thing," said his wife Beth. "He was the one who took on extra work and didn't complain. He was a rather private person, but his family was incredibly important to him."

"He was a gracious and graceful person and a great father," said his son, Aaron, of Palatine, high school sports editor for the Daily Herald. "Both my brother Eric and I were long-distance swimmers, and my sister Kirsten swam, too. My father always supported us. He was at all our meets."

Mr. Gabriel was born Dec. 17, 1938 in Chicago. He was a graduate of Wauconda High School.

He met Beth Hagerman when they were both doing seasonal work around the holidays. She was a student at the University of Minnesota at the time; it was a second job for him. They married on Sept. 3, 1960, in Libertyville.

Mr. Gabriel founded Gabriel Food Co., a bakery supply company, in 1973 and sold the business in 1997. At one time or another, all of his three children worked in the family business, as did his wife.

Mr. Gabriel became a school bus driver in 2001. For most of those years, his passengers were special-needs children.

"He treated those kids like they were his own and their parents knew it," said Blanca Souders, director of transportation for the St. Charles school district. "The kids loved him. He was a kind and gentle man who made a lasting impression. We are all saddened by his death."

In addition to his great love for sports, Mr. Gabriel loved opera, and he and Beth were season ticket holders with the Lyric Opera for 20 years.

Mr. Gabriel was preceded in death by his son, Jeffrey.

In addition to his wife Beth, his sons Aaron and Eric and daughter Kirsten, he is survived by his brother Jon of Island Lake, daughter-in-law Deborah Pankey and grandsons Jerome and Henry of Palatine.