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Submitted: 10/12/08 • Approved: 10/13/08 • Last Updated: 4/1/18 • R18264-G0-S3
VASICH
BELOVED SON
BROTHER-FRIEND
GREGORY S.
FEBRUARY 27, 1981
APRIL 9, 2004
A HEART AS BIG AS HIS SMILE
BELOVED WIFE
MOTHER
CAROL R.
JANUARY 4, 1954
BELOVED HUSBAND
FATHER
MILTON
SEPTEMBER 26, 1952
MARRIED FEBRUARY 18, 1978
Back of stone:
VASICH
Note:
From the Chicago Tribune (IL) - April 13, 2004
"GREGORY S. VASICH, 23
U. of I. grad, National Merit Scholar
With his wide range of interests that included movies, sports, music and books, Gregory S. Vasich could engage friends and family in conversations for long stretches of time.
"He was always with somebody and always talking with people," said his mother Carol.
Mr. Vasich of Naperville, 23, a graduate of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an engineering assistant with Ketchmark & Associates, Inc., in Burr Ridge, died Friday, April 9, at Edward Hospital in Naperville of injuries from a car accident at Naper Boulevard and 75th Street.
Mr. Vasich was born in Park Ridge. His family moved to Naperville when he was 5, and he attended Maplebrook Elementary School and Lincoln Junior High School. While a student at Naperville Central High School, the National Merit Scholar played trombone in the marching band, jazz band and wind ensemble.
The band program was an integral part of his life.
"He was a very special young man," said D. J. Alstadt, the high school band director. "He was incredibly talented and played in all the top ensembles. He brought a lot of musical depth to the musical ensemble."
"He had a very joyous outlook on life and a zeal for it as well," Alstadt said.
He entered U. of I. as an engineering major but switched to English and cinema studies, graduating with honors in December. For five seasons, he performed with the Marching Illini. After graduation, he moved back to Naperville and resumed his engineering assistant position at Ketchmark, where he had been working summers and school breaks since 1999, his mother said.
Throughout his life, Mr. Vasich had a passion for the outdoors and enjoyed camping, hiking and mountain climbing with his family, his parents said.
Through the years as his high school circle of friends grew up and went on with their lives, Mr. Vasich was the glue that held everyone together, his mother said.
"He wanted everyone to be happy and wanted everyone to be together," she said.
"His friends have asked that the high school set up a citizenship award specifically for the band students in his honor because he was always respectful and kind, and they promised to keep it going for the rest of their lives," his mother said.
Mr. Vasich was a member of St. Joseph Orthodox Church in Wheaton and Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral in Chicago.
Other survivors include his father, Milton; brothers Michael, Christopher and Paul; maternal grandparents Jim and Agnes Richards; paternal grandparents Bratislav and Angelija Vasich; and several aunts, uncles and cousins.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 8 p.m. Tuesday in Friedrich-Jones Funeral Home, 44 S. Mill St., Naperville. Services will be held at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 5701 N. Redwood Drive, Chicago."
From the Chicago Tribune (IL) - May 12, 2005
"Man found guilty in fatal hit-run
A Montgomery man who was intoxicated by cocaine was convicted Wednesday of reckless homicide in the death of a 23-year-old Naperville man in 2004.
Mark Schoger, 42, faces up to 28 years in prison for the April 2004 incident, in which he drove a car through a stoplight at 50 m.p.h. and broadsided a vehicle driven by Gregory Vasich, killing him instantly.
Wednesday, DuPage Judge Robert Anderson convicted Schoger of reckless homicide, aggravated drunken driving and fleeing the scene of an accident.
The accident occurred about 2:30 a.m. on April 9, 2004, at Naper Boulevard and 75th Street in Naperville. Schoger fled the scene, but was found about eight hours later behind a grocery about a block from the scene.
Assistant State's Atty. Michael Reidy said at the trial that Schoger had been using crack cocaine and drinking beer continuously since the evening before the accident and knew his car's brakes didn't work.
The trial, which lasted a week, focused on the state's claim that Schoger was intoxicated by cocaine and the defense's claim that proving impairment from cocaine is not scientifically possible after eight hours.
Both sides presented testimony from experts in support.
Assistant Public Defender Elizabeth Reed said there is "no clinical proof to show he was impaired."
But Anderson said: "Even if they [the experts] cross each other out, there is other evidence. Everyone agrees he used cocaine. I can't determine impairment from just the lab test, but I can from all of the evidence."
"It's horrible to think he was even on the road," Milton Vasich, the victim's father, said after the verdict. "We will leave the punishment to the judge."
Schoger, who declined to testify on his own behalf, showed no reaction to Anderson's ruling.
Sentencing is set for July 15."
Contributed on 10/12/08 by pasteffen99
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Record #: 18264