Graduate from Joliet’s Gompers Jr. High class of ‘58 invited back for special day

Joliet — Gompers Junior High students got to visit with a special guest on Friday during the Joliet Public Schools District 86 Principal for a Day program.

New Lenox resident Bob DiLorenzo is 80 years old and was part of Gompers’ first graduating class in 1958 and had the opportunity during the event to meet with members of the current sixth grade class, who will be the first students to graduate from the new Gompers building in 2027.

“I’ve lived in this area all my life,” said DiLorenzo. “I went to Parks School for kindergarten to sixth grade, then they were going to build the new junior highs and I got sent to A.O. Marshall for seventh grade, and by eighth grade I was at Gompers for its first year.”

DiLorenzo reached out to District 86 after doing some house cleaning, when he found a stack of old documents from his eighth grade year.

“I was going through old paperwork, and I found the commencement program from the first class,” he explained. “I’d read they were building a new school, so I thought they might be interested in having the papers as a historical record.”

DiLorenzo reached out to Gompers and provided the school with his parents’ copy of the commencement papers—though he kept his own copy.

“I talked to some people there, and they were very nice, and I thought that was it,” DiLorenzo said. “Then Sandy [Zalewski, district director of communications and development] called me a few days later and asked if I was interested in being principal for the day.”

DiLorenzo said he was not sure about doing it, though, until he talked to his son, who convinced him it would be a good chance to share his experience with current students.

“I’ve always been able to get along well with younger people, because I show them respect,” he said. “I know I don’t have all the answers because I’m older.”

—  Bob DiLorenzo, Gompers Junior High School class of 1958

“I didn’t expect anything to happen,” DiLorenzo said. “I was just trying to be kind. Sixty-six years is a long time to hold onto a piece of paper. I thought maybe they’d like to have it.”

DiLorenzo said the words of advice he planned to share with the students, aside from his mother’s message to be kind, were ‘if it’s meant to be, it’s up to me.’

“I have grandkids about the age of the kids at the school, and they said that was something they always remembered that I told them,” he said. “I like that saying. If you want something out of life, you have to go after it, someone won’t always give it to you.”

During his visit to Gompers, DiLorenzo got to take a tour of the school and view the plans for the new building, as well as meet with some of the students, who asked him questions about his experience.

“I’ve always been able to get along well with younger people, because I show them respect,” he said. “I know I don’t have all the answers because I’m older.”

DiLorenzo also got a chance to see some old photos from the early years of the school, including one of himself on the eighth-grade basketball team.

“We are very excited to have him here,” said Gompers Principal Raul Gaston, who is in his first year at the school. “We recruited a few kids from the class of 2027 to meet with him. It’s a nice chance to make that connection from the past to the present and bit into the future, and an opportunity to learn something about our school that may have been lost in the shuffle over the years.”