Friends and family of Roger Tomporowski remembered him Monday as a man whose kind and quiet demeanor masked a hardy determination, a quality that led him to succeed in everything from high school cross-country races to Wisconsin deer-hunting excursions.
About 100 people attended Tomporowski’s funeral at St. James Catholic Church in Arlington Heights, not far from the neighborhood where he lived for many years with his wife, Sandra, and son Mark.
Tomporowski, 56, was slain, along with his brother and sister-in-law, during a trip earlier this month to the family’s farmhouse in Richland County, Wis.
Tomporowski’s nephew, Steven Michael Tomporowski, 18, is accused of the killings. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail in Richland County, where his next court appearance is scheduled for March 10.
Craig Grant delivered the eulogy at his friend’s funeral mass and recalled meeting Tomporowski on the Proviso West High School cross-country team in 1962. Grant said Tomporowski’s resolve to do well inspired the other runners on a team that won the state championship in 1964.
“He kept us going from day to day,” he said. “Without him, we could not have accomplished what we did.”
Tomporowski worked for Peoples Energy for 31 years until he retired in 2001. Friends and neighbors have said that Tomporowski was eager to spend more time hunting, fishing and fixing up the Richland County farmhouse owned by his sister-in-law’s parents.
Rev. Ted Schmitt, associate pastor at St. James, recalled Tomporowski’s prowess as an outdoorsman and the joy he took in his rural outings.
“His last conversation with [his wife] was to say what a great day he was having with his brother,” he said.
Grant also shared outdoor adventures with his friend, including a backpacking trek in the High Sierras. Although Grant and others have described Tomporowski as reserved, those trips seemed to bring out his gregarious side.
“We talked and talked and laughed,” Grant said. “We smoked a cigar or two. We solved the world’s problems several times over and created a few of our own.”
During the mass, Schmitt wore a white vestment–the same color he dons for occasions like weddings and Christmas masses–as a sign of the Christian belief in the afterlife. Grant also found comfort in that aspect of faith, as he ended his remarks with a simple poem:
“No one ever dies until there is no one left to remember. And when there is no one left to remember, it means we are all together again.”
