by Robert Stocker | Aug 22, 2024 | Uncategorized
I’ve heard writing it down makes it real, maybe too real. Is that really what matters? Making it real? My friends have told me I need to write a book, but I’ve never thought what I had to say mattered much. Who would be interested? It was my own personal struggle with...
by Robert Stocker | Aug 22, 2024 | Uncategorized
This story didn’t happen on Father’s Day, but for me it defined a father’s love better than any other small moment in my life. This is how we reveal our parenting…our legacy…in the small moments. From a very young age, our daughter, Kelsey, had to endure a significant...
by Robert Stocker | Aug 22, 2024 | Uncategorized
When my mum passed away three years ago, my dad began researching her past. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to know – she had sent off for her original birth certificate as soon as adopted children were legally able to do so – but she just seemed to give up on the idea...
by Robert Stocker | Aug 21, 2024 | Uncategorized
It’s funny how the little things in life can make such a big impression. Like the ripple from a pebble thrown in a pond, a small gesture can reach far beyond that short moment of contact. But this story isn’t about a pebble; it’s about a chocolate covered cherry, or...
by Robert Stocker | Aug 21, 2024 | Uncategorized
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...
by Robert Stocker | Jul 5, 2024 | Uncategorized
I was born in March of 1938, in St. Louis, MO. I lived in South St Louis, near Carondelet Park, been there most of my life. I attended a local public school, Woerner Elementary School. Later I attended Our Lady of Sorrows catholic school and Bishop DuBourg High School...