When John Thomas DeBergh went to work at the Cook County Jail, he always carried a big briefcase. In it he kept an array of supplies, from Q-Tips to gloves to aspirin. The other officers would call him “Inspector Gadget.” “They used to make fun of him for it, but he’d say, `When you need something, you always come to me,'” said his wife, Rosemary. Mr. DeBergh, 53, a correctional officer for 18 years, died Tuesday, Dec. 2 , of a heart attack in his Steger home. Mr. DeBergh was born in Oak Park and graduated from Rich East High School in Park Forest in 1968. He studied political science at Prairie State College with hopes of becoming an attorney and met his wife at a school dance. “He couldn’t dance. I told him, `If you want to be with me, you’re going to have to learn,'” she said. He did, eventually becoming a good dancer, and they married in 1972, she said. Mr. DeBergh left college after a few years and took a job as a security guard, later becoming a correctional officer. “He loved that job [at the jail]. He was always working overtime, working double shifts, calling in before he got there so he’d know what was going on,” she said. “He knew that jail like the back of his hand.” He also was a good high-diver, having been on his high school team. When his two children were young, Mr. DeBergh often took his family to the pool. “Everybody would get out of the pool and watch him dive,” his wife said. “They’d hold up their fingers and say, `That’s an 8! That’s a 9!'” Other survivors include his two sons, Jason and Ryan; and his mother, Shirlee Horton DeBergh. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Liborius Catholic Church, 71 W. 35th St., Steger.
