Skating community shocked by death of Glen Ellyn’s Carl Cepuran

A nationally recognized speed skating coach who brought joy to his students, Carl Cepuran died Sunday in the Glen Ellyn home he shared with his wife, Marilyn.

Cepuran, 64, impacted thousands of athletes with the Glen Ellyn Speed Skating club and skaters outside the club, from recreational skaters such as his son, Gordon Cepuran, to his youngest son, Ethan Cepuran, a silver medalist at the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics.

“My dad was the kind of person who always showed up,” said his oldest son, former youth national champion Eric Cepuran. “You never had to ask him twice. He had a very strong sense of community and just a great passion for speed skating.”

The Daily Herald had contacted Carl Cepuran as recently as last Thursday, when he submitted photos of he and Ethan Cepuran in Milan for a Father’s Day feature.

“This was not expected, for sure. The whole community is in shock,” said Melissa Koenig, a coach, past president and former pupil of Carl Cepuran at Glen Ellyn Speed Skating.

“It’s a huge shock, and it’s also just a huge void,” she said. “A bigger-than-life person who had a lot of presence and a lot of enthusiasm and passion for everything he was involved in, whether that was his family, speed skating, the community.”

From Chicago’s South Side, Carl Cepuran attended Chicago Blackhawks games with his father even before attending kindergarten, he told the Daily Herald in January.

Introduced to speed skating as a grade school student when he responded to an ad he thought was for a hockey club, Cepuran “gave it a try,” he said.

Also an avid golfer like his father and children, after moving to Des Plaines, Carl Cepuran was an Evans Scholar from Notre Dame High School in Niles, and walked on to the Northwestern University golf team.

After moving to Glen Ellyn, once a 6-year-old Eric Cepuran expressed interest in speed skating while watching the 1992 Winter Olympics, his father got involved with Glen Ellyn Speed Skating, where he was head coach from 2004 to 2016.

“Eric really fell in love with it. We were in for a journey we couldn’t have imagined,” Carl Cepuran told the Daily Herald.

Eric Cepuran went on to compete at 5000 meters in the 2007-08 World Cup, while his father also worked in regional development for US Speedskating.

Eventually, Eric and Gordon Cepuran got little Ethan on the ice. That started a path to Ethan Cepuran’s bronze medal in team pursuit at the 2022 Beijing Games, and a silver medal in February in Milan.

Students also included 2022 Olympian Austin Kleba of Campton Hills and 2026 Olympian Sarah Warren of Willowbrook.

“Inside and outside the sporting world, Coach Carl was a beacon of light,” Warren said. “He was a man who lived by the principle of giving more than he took.”

As his own children made him a grandfather to Eliza, Leif, Jase, George, and Billie, Cepuran took to nurturing them.

“He became just the most amazing grandfather I could ever ask for,” Eric Cepuran said.

“The times that he got to spend with my kids were just so special for them, I’m just so grateful for that.”

Visitation for Carl Cepuran will be held from 3 to 7 p.m. Friday at Morrizo Funeral Home, 2550 W. Hassell Road, Hoffman Estates.

A visitation followed by the funeral will be held starting at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Wheaton College Church, 332 E. Seminary Ave.