Emil Garippo, a Chicago, and one of Elmhurst’s longest living residents, celebrated his 100th birthday, Saturday April 1.
Four generations of the Garippo family gathered at Mack’s Golden Pheasant Restaurant, the oldest continuously owned restaurant in DuPage County, co-owned and managed by Garippo’s daughter Debbie and her husband Steve Mack.
“My grandpa is an inspiration,” Jessica Grady said during the party. “He is a man of honor and is always level headed.”
Garippo, the son of an immigrant Italian family, was born and raised in a small flat on the Near West Side of Chicago where the University of Illinois Chicago now stands.
Despite being raised during the height of the Great Depression, Garippo recalled an “active, happy life growing up.”
Garippo would be drafted soon after the bombing at Pearl Harbor, he was a medic and was a veteran of the Normandy campaign in World War II, having landed on the beach 13 days after the initial invasion.
In 1944 Emil received news of the death of his brother Mike, in Holland. Emil and Mike wrote each other often, family members said. Mike who had helped lead the capture of 30 German soldiers, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the highest medal for valor not unique to a specific branch of the US military.
Soon after his return home Garippo married Dean Rugg, and the couple had their first of three children, Michael.
In 1949, Garippo graduated with a degree in education from DePaul University, eventually becoming a Chicago schoolteacher. He eventually rose to assistant principal of Spalding High, one of the nation’s first public schools for children with disabilities, according to his family. Seeing his talent, the administration brought Emil to the central office to help oversee citywide transportation.
In 1951 Garippo purchased his first home in Elmhurst, a mostly rural and hard to reach suburb of Chicago at the time. Convinced by a friend of his in construction, Garippo, his wife and three children became early adopters of suburban life. Within a few years, much of his extended family followed, including his parents and his sister’s family.
The Mayor of Elmhurst, Scott Levin, attended the birthday celebration Saturday, offering a proclamation to commemorate the occasion, and solidify Garippo’s name in the city’s history.
“Whereas Emil’s friends and family are gathered today to celebrate this admirable man, who has been and led transformations for decades, with a birthday … I, Scott Levin, Mayor of the City of Elmhurst do hereby proclaim April 1, 2023 Emil Garippo day.”
Garippo attributes his long life to his early adoption of jogging to stay fit. Recreational running was not as popular then as it is now, he said.
He still sets aside 20 minutes to ride his stationary bike followed by a series of “yoga-like” exercises, according to his nephew John Hoffman.
“I wish you a happy 100th birthday, as well as good health and happiness in the years ahead,” Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker wrote in a letter to Garippo.
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