'Everything was beautiful and dangerous and good': Emil Garippo, longtime Bloomingdale resident, dies at 100
This article has been updated to correct Emil Garippo's birth year.
When Emil Garippo reflected on his life at a July ceremony honoring him, he said, "Everything was beautiful and dangerous and good."
That story came to a close on Aug. 21 when Garippo died after a short illness. He was 100.
"He had no ego himself and was always there for others, welcoming and making everyone he knew feel comfortable. He looked after me when we were young, and I turned to him throughout our lives for his sound pragmatic advice," said his sister, Thomasine Hoffman.
The longtime Bloomingdale resident was born on April 1, 1923, in Chicago's Little Italy neighborhood, to immigrant parents. During the ceremony in July, where the Bloomingdale village board proclaimed a day in his honor, Garippo said even though he grew up in the Great Depression, he had an active and happy childhood - playing at Hull House settlement house, taking long swims in Lake Michigan, attending a baseball game where he saw Babe Ruth hit a home run and more.
He was in the Army in World War II, landing at Normandy two weeks after the D-Day invasion. He was a medic and vividly recalled details from the hundreds of bodies he pulled from swamps and fields as he moved east with the military. His older brother, Michael, died in battle; Garippo made sure that, after the war, he was reburied in the United States.
Garippo married his wife, Dean, in 1948 and started a family while pursuing a degree at DePaul University. He became assistant principal of a Chicago high school for children with disabilities, then joined the central administration, overseeing school transportation.
"He was a real hero for his country and also for all his students and our family. He supported and uplifted so many people through his example and dedication," said his daughter, Deanna Lynn Kasuya.
In 1951, after meeting a homebuilder who told them about the growing suburb of Elmhurst, the young family moved there. Thirty-five years ago, Emil and Dean moved to Bloomingdale. Garippo became a fitness enthusiast in the early 1960s when he was diagnosed as having a weak heart. After reading a magazine article extolling jogging, he donned tennis shoes and started running. Even in the last year, he rode an exercise bicycle 20 minutes a day, followed by yoga-like stretches.
He was also a fan of travel, driving his family on vacations to all 50 states and Mexico.
Dean and Emil were married for 74 years. She died, at age 96, in 2020.
Besides his sister, Garippo is survived by his three children, four grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.