A look back at those we lost this year in Fox Valley this year

We said goodbye to several notable Fox Valley residents in 2014. Three women were murdered, allegedly by relatives. A child died while seeking a thrill. A longtime civic watchdog passed away.

Such we wrote about in 2014.

The tragic

• Paulino F. Delle Grazie, 4, drowned June 14 in an outdoor swimming pool at the Royal Fox Country Club in St. Charles. Investigations by the Illinois Department of Public Health and St. Charles police determined the facilities were not to blame and there were three lifeguards on duty at the time of Delle Grazie's death. A witness told police the boy hit his head as he was brought out of the water. And a report found the boy's mother rejected help from lifeguards as she attempted to administer CPR.

• Parker Wolfsmith, 14, died May 31 in Maple Park. The boy was hit by a freight train as he stood close to the tracks to feel the rush and suction created by the train, a practice called “breezing.”

• Mildred “Dodie” Darrington, 85, of East Dundee was found fatally stabbed in her home July 18. Her grandson, Richard Schmelzer, 41, of Texas, is charged with her murder. Schmelzer had financial problems and was executor of Darrington's estate and stood to inherit half of her roughly $1 million estate, and used her credit cards for $13,000 in unauthorized cash withdrawals, according to prosecutors.

• Joshua Paul, 31, of Carpentersville, died unexpectedly Aug. 18 at an Elgin hospital hours after a brief scuffle with two officers while being arrested on a traffic charge. The Kane County Coroner's report said Paul died of internal bleeding from a lacerated portal vein in his liver. Chronic cirrhosis of the liver caused by long-term alcohol abuse contributed to his death, according to the report. Paul's blood alcohol content when he was admitted to the hospital was listed at .356 percent, almost 4½ times the legal limit to operate a vehicle.

• A fight over living arrangements led to the killing of Robert Grundei, 48, formerly of Coral Springs, Florida, May 26 after he was shot in the back by his brother, Mark Grundei, in Huntley.

Mark Grundei, 50, then shot himself in the head. He died June 4 of severe head injuries at Hospice Care Center in Woodstock.

The brothers' mother, Alyce Grundei, suffered a head wound from a grazing bullet while trying to break up the fight. Police said the brothers were fighting over who was going to live in their mother's Sun City house, even though the property had been sold to a new owner. Robert had been staying at the house to help with its sale and with funeral arrangements after the death of the youngest brother, Brian, 45, who drowned in Lake County earlier in May.

• The body of Geneva resident Kathleen King, 32, was discovered on railroad tracks a few blocks from her home by a worker on a passing freight train July 6. Her husband, 47-year-old Shadwick King, has been charged with murder. Prosecutors say he asphyxiated her after an argument at their house, then moved the body to the railroad tracks. King was the mother of three elementary-school-aged sons.

• Longtime Elgin attorney John E. Juergensmeyer, 80, an energetic man with a passion for social causes, was killed in a crash Sept. 28 while flying a small plane near Plano. He was coming back from visiting his older brother at a nursing home in Carlinville. He was outgoing and passionate about his family, the law and Wesley United Methodist Church. He was chairman of TLC Pregnancy Services in Elgin, and was active with The Salvation Army and the Rotary Club.

• On April 19, 26-year-old Dinesh Sudhakar-Uckoo of Bloomington drowned when he lost control of his kayak and went over the dam on the Fox River in Geneva.

• Sharon Baumgartner, 57, of Carpentersville, was stabbed to death in her home Sept. 29. Her sister, Sandra L. Baumgartner, has been charged with the murder.

• Erdenebileg Sambuunyam, 40, of Buffalo Grove, was shot and killed by Sleepy Hollow police March 9, as they investigated a domestic disturbance in which two other people had been injured.

Others

• St. Charles resident Michael Heisley was a billionaire businessman best known for buying the Vancouver Grizzlies NBA franchise in 2000 and moving the team to Memphis. He sold the team in 2012 in a deal with an estimated $377 million. Heisley also served as a school board member for St. Charles Unit District 303. He died at age 77 from complications resulting from a massive stroke.

• Jim Wheeler, the longtime Pottawatomie Golf Course professional, died suddenly at the age of 68 following a history of heart problems. He was a big promoter of athletic programs at St. Charles East and St. Charles North high schools. Friends described him as quick-witted, affable and the kind of worker who put in 15-hour days teaching during the peak season at the St. Charles golf course.

• Gordon Schnulle, an Elgin resident who fought in the battle of Iwo Jima in World War II, died at age 88 on April 21. A fun and outgoing man, Gordon Schnulle worked for 30 years as an engineer at Elgin Corrugated Box Co. He was passionate about woodworking and loved taking pictures at social events. He participated in the national oral-history project StoryCorps in 2010, recalling the loose black lava sand, the smell of sulfur, and the constant shelling and bombing on the island of Iwo Jima. He also frequented Senior Services Associates in Elgin, where he was known for wearing funny outfits on special occasions.

• Jack Roeser, founder of Otto Engineering in Carpentersville and a big-time supporter of conservative politics and Republican politicians, died June 13 at age 90.

The Carpentersville resident was credited with revitalizing an area along the Fox River when he moved his company there from Morton Grove. In 2013, it had more than 500 employees and sales of more than $79 million. Roeser founded the Family Taxpayer Foundation, and was an early supporter of Tea Party politics. He ran against Gov. Jim Edgar in the 1994 Republican primary.

• Joe Marconi, 88, was forthright in his opinions about what Batavia needed to do to improve itself, especially its downtown. The real estate investor and shop owner died Dec. 4. He was active in Batavia MainStreet and the Batavia Chamber of Commerce. And in August 2014, he was the leader of a class-action lawsuit seeking financial relief for customers of Batavia's electrical utility, over escalating costs due to purchases of power generated by a new coal-burning plant.

• Lifelong Elgin resident Bernice Gromer, matriarch of a chain of grocery stores in the Fox Valley area, died Dec. 2 at age 91. She and her late husband, Richard Gromer, owned and operated the Gromer Supermarkets and were known to everyone as the “town grocer.” The couple took over the Gromers' family business — a one-room store along Liberty Street in downtown Elgin, started in 1935 — in 1954. The Gromers purchased the Wing Park Shopping Center in the early 1980s, and Bernice turned one of the stores into a dress shop, B'Elegant Fashion, which she operated for about 13 years..

• Carolyn Higgins, the first village clerk for Campton Hills, died March 30 at age 62. She was initially elected in 2008, then re-elected in 2011. She had also signed a petition proposing a referendum to dissolve the village. Despite her views, other village officials said she was dedicated to doing the job right. “She did her best to live up to the responsibilities as clerk. She spent a lot of long evenings getting minutes and all of the clerk's responsibilities (completed). It's a shame she didn't have the opportunity to finish out her term,” Trustee Jim Kopec said.

• David Smith, 64, East Dundee's longtime police chief, its first village administrator and the director of the QuadCom emergency dispatch center in Dundee Township, died Oct. 20.

• Laura Crawford, 46, an author and a beloved teacher at Sleepy Hollow Elementary School, where she spent 20 years teaching second grade, third grade and literacy, died Sept. 29 of complications from chronic lymphocytic leukemia.