Holliday served his family, community and country very well

Gerald Holliday of Geneva was a man of his word.

When he married his wife Rose and moved her half a continent away from her family in California, he promised he would take her back every year to visit her mother, said June Rule of Geneva, the Hollidays' daughter. And every summer, they made that trip.

Holliday, 89, died Monday.

He was devoted to his family and his community. Holliday grew up the son of a salesman, moving 12 times in 14 years. When he graduated college, he followed his parents to Geneva. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he returned to his job at Burgess-Norton Manufacturing in Geneva, and raised two daughters with his wife.

Holliday served 10 years on the Geneva City Council in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

"He was just overall really committed to doing things for his community," Rule said.

He also had stints as president of the Fourth Street Elementary School PTA and Coultrap Middle School PTO. He belonged to the Chicago-Fox Valley Shrine Club, was a member of American Legion Post 75, and was a deacon and education board member at First Congregational Church of Geneva.

Once Holliday retired in 1984, he spent three years taking care of his ailing mother until her death. Then he and Rose began visiting all the places where he grew up.

He also took on the challenge, with others, of restoring an old cemetery on Corron Road.

"He was really proud of that," his daughter said.

Holliday wrote a six-volume journal of family history, including what was happening in the world on dates significant to the family.

"He always said, 'I hope someday somebody takes the time to read it and carry it on,'" Rule said.

Services were held Saturday and burial was private. Memorial donations can be made to the Foundation for Fighting Blindness or AMD Alliance International, both for macular degeneration research, or to the First Congregational Church of Geneva, 321 Hamilton St.