Our area lost a good one recently

[Il softball fan]

‘Engineer of Fun,’ former Wood River Mayor Leroy Emerick, dies at 92 - The Telegraph

Our community lost a great man yesterday. ASA hall of fame inductee, WWII veteran who just a few years ago was part of the honor flight program, and just an all around great man. The local softball park is named after him. His son, is our current high school softball coach. Ms. Emerick passed a couple months back also. Softball games around here will not be the same without them. They were an almost always fixture next to fence, sitting in their lawn chairs watching the softball team. Even this past season, they were at almost every game. At their advanced age, they didn't enjoy the cold spring games, but there they would be all bundled up in blankets. They will be missed.

“I’ve had a lifelong love affair with the whole community,” Emerick said during an interview with the AdVantage News in February, 2015. “I think I’ve had a philosophy that service to humanity is the best work you can do. And I’ve tried to do that throughout my life.

 

[Cannonball]

Thanks for posting this. I didn't know it. Leroy was a fixture and I can't remember a time when he wasn't around the various parks. His children continued in that legacy.

 

[Il softball fan]

I didn't really know him when I was young, but spent the last few years around him and his wife at the softball field watching high school games. Super nice people.