John R. Minerick

John R. Minerick, 86, of Bourbonnais, died Friday (April 26, 2013) at Riverside Medical Center, Kankakee. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday at the Clancy-Gernon Funeral Home, Bourbonnais. A funeral Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. Wednesday at St. Patrick Catholic Church, Kankakee, where he was a member. Father John Peeters will officiate. Burial will be in Kankakee Memorial Gardens, Aroma Township. Memorials may be made to the Elks National Foundation, Hospice of Kankakee Valley, or to St. Patrick Catholic Church for Masses. Mr. Minerick retired in 1984 as a teacher and coach. He taught at Hudson High School in Hudson Wis., for two years, was on the original staff of Rich High School in Park Forest, where he taught five years, and spent 26 years at Maine Township High School in Des Plaines. He had also retired as a cattle rancher in Arkansas. He was born Aug. 14, 1926, in Hermansville, Mich., the son of John P. and Anna Folich Minerick. His first wife, the former Regina Laufenberg, whom he married in 1949, died in 1983. He was a veteran of the U.S. Navy, serving during World War II. He was proud to have been able to go on the Honor Flight last July to see the World War II memorial in Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin, where he participated on the track team as a pole vaulter. He received his Master of Science degree from Northwestern University and did extensive graduate study. He was past president of the Illinois High School and College Drivers Education Association. He was a life member of The Des Plaines Elks Lodge 1526, where he had been the past Exhalted Ruler, past District Deputy and had been active in state youth activities. He was a member of the Bradley-Bourbonnais Sportsman's Club, the Kankakee Vintage Car Club, the Quadrille Dance Club, the Knights of Columbus, the Kankakee VFW Post 2857 and the Kankakee Moose Lodge 802-Bradley. He enjoyed gardening, fishing, boating and stamp collecting. He had traveled extensively. Surviving are his wife, the former Lois Maxfield LeSage, of Bourbonnais, whom he married Oct. 24, 1987; two stepsons, Marc LeSage, of Atlanta, Ga., and Warren LeSage, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; one stepdaughter and stepson-in-law, Michelle and Perry Browder, of Glenview; three grandchildren, Amanda, Emily and Martin Browder; five sisters and four brothers-in-law, Geraldine and Robert Knutson, of Harvard, Audrey Mitchell, of Dearborn, Mich., Marjorie and William Leatham, of Tucson, Ariz., Helen and Robert McKinnell, of Princeton, and Shirley and Norman Schreiner, of Lake Geneva, Wis.; one sister-in-law, Marcelline O'Brien, of Madison, Wis.; and several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents; one brother, Phillip; four brothers-in-law, Robert and Gale Maxfield, William Mitchell and William O'Brien; and one sister-in-law, Shirley Maxfield. Memorials may be made to Elks National Foundation, Hospice of Kankakee Valley or St. Patrick Church for Masses.

John R. Minerick

August 14, 1926 - April 26, 2013