Gene Verdu was truly a philanthropist and a man for all seasons. I first met him professionally when I became a St. Clair County board member in 1981. I had worked in private industry for yearsand networked with many social service agencies in both my role as a union leader and my involvement in many community organizations. Having been very active in the labor movementand being my local union’s president, I was the contact person for many of these social services organizations. When I was elected to my county board position, I was exposed to many more social service organizations, which included PSOP (Programs and Services for Older Persons). This is when I first met Gene Verdu, then director of PSOP.I learned how he was assisting seniors throughout our county with multiple types of services that allowed our seniors to survive and thrive.

Now that I was representing thousands of families in my new county board district, I recognized that many of those familiesneeded both social and government services. When it came to assisting people who needed help with senior matters, I could always rely on Gene at PSOP to follow through with every case I’d ask him to get involved in. Seniors may have needed an evaluation for a various number of issues: whether they should be staying in their home, what nutrition needs they may have, whether they should get help with rent or other medical needs. Whatever it was, Gene had the resources and would get involved to make sure the family got as much help as possible. As I worked more and more with Gene at PSOP, I started learning more and more about his international interests in helping his fellow man. Over the years, I made my way to the Illinois House of Representatives, where I served for nine terms. While in that position, Gene mentored me on current statewide and national senior issues. We both made it onto the Governor’s Council for Aging. Gene was on my telephone speed dial every time I needed something concerning seniors or their legislation.

He was probably one of the most educated and active people I knew who worked with senior issues, both at the state and federal level. Having assisted my mother with caring for my father—then becoming the sole caregiver for my mother for the next thirty years after my father passed—I learned firsthand the challenges of caring for the elderly. Many of our friends also had issues caring for their elderly loved ones. Gene understood these challenges and shared his insight. He said that as people age, it impacts them physically, mentally, and financially. As an example of one issue, Gene knew that going to the doctor is one of the most critical times when you need a caregiver with you. This is because most of the time, older people don’t truly hear everything the doctor is saying. Not because they don’t want to hear, but because they physically don’t hear everything in the correct context. Gene would try to educate and inform everyone on this issue and even make it a topic of many informal conversations during his off hours.

When Gene told me about the issue of the elderly not hearing what their medical providers were trying to communicate to them, I started going to the doctor with my mother. I found out that half the information she had been telling me was wrong because she couldn’t hear what the doctor said. From then on, I made sure she sat close enough to the doctor and had him speak up so she and I could hear what they were saying. How many seniors out there don’t get this type of support? The whole field of aging is overwhelming. Gene spent his life trying to get the public informed on how to assist seniors and help both create and provide senior services.

He knew how to harvest resources from any community, and he would put them in action to help others. Working with the Jesuits, Gene helped create a school by hacking out a clearing in a jungle village location, in what is now the nation of Belize. He got businesses and villagers together and brought them all in to be part of something special: a school. Gene knew that they would feel a stronger connection with the school and its mission to educate children if they were part of creating it. People in Belize understand the importance of educating their children. Many of those children are now the leaders of Belize.

I traveled to Belize and looked at where he helped start his first school. In some areas, people are still bathing and washing their clothes in the river. Yet when Gene walked down the street, they would say, “Hello, Uncle Gene!” He was that respected throughout the country.

Partnerships were everything to him. Gene never just took from someone. He always tried to give something in return. He understood the kind of society we are becoming, a much older one. He tried to make sure we met the needs of the handicapped and the needy, especially for those who were elderly. But he also asked the elderly for help too. He’d give you the shirt off his back if you needed it and would say, “There are other people who need help too. Why don’t you help them also?”

Gene expected people to give back, not to him, but their community. I will say that one overriding principle of Gene’s was “How can I help somebody?” That’s the kind of person he wanted everyone to be. He fulfilled that in his lifetime. Gene had a heart of gold and a vision to make the world and our community a better place for us all.

Gene knew how to get things done, and he did. The world and our community is better because of
what Gene did, and we still have the benefits of his work—helping to make the world and our community a better place—today.
Godspeed, Gene Verdu!

Thomas Holbrook