An Extraordinary Life: ‘He was the most humble guy that I’ve ever known’

Dr. Bob Stephen recalled the day Mike Condon of Plainfield, a chiropractor for more than 30 years, unexpectedly called him.

Bob had played sports with Mike when theyd’ attended the former Joliet Catholic High School, now Joliet Catholic Academy. And Bob had played against Mike in grade school because Bob attended St. Paul and Mike went to St. Jude.

“He was very talented in just about everything he did,” Bob said. “But he never took his talent that seriously. He was the most humble guy that I’ve ever known, and I admired that about him for years. You never knew he was the star athlete. He was very kind and he’d embrace you and include you in things.”

But Mike hadn’t called to catch up on old times. Mike, who was still very physically active, thought he had injured his shoulder lifting weights – except three months had passed and the pain hadn’t improved. He also had slight breathlessness when he ran.

“He’d say ‘Gosh, I’m so out of shape,’” Mike’s wife Deb Condon of Plainfield recalled. “We both just thought we were getting older…and then he started coughing.”

So Mike called Bob, who’d practiced emergency medicine in Michigan for 30 years. Bob felt the issue was most likely orthopedic but advised Mike to get an X-ray, just for peace of mind.

“I told him, ‘Don’t call me back unless it’s something,’” Bob said. “So I’m walking my dog three weeks later when the phone rang. I looked at the phone and it was Mike.”

Mike had stage three inoperable lung cancer, Deb said.

“Mike never smoked a day in his life,” Deb said. “He never took as much a Tylenol during our entire married life.”

Mike’s sister Jane Condon of Joliet said she was a tomboy growing up so Mike, always an exceptional, humble athlete, was her hero – and all her friends had crushes on him, too. Mike “wore rose-colored glasses” and “saw the good in everyone,” she added.

Jane recalled a day from their childhood when a bully was picking on a “nerd” and the two had a showdown. Jane said Mike calmly stepped in and said, “This isn’t going to happen.”

John Condon of California, Mike’s brother, said he “worshipped Mike” and that, to him, “Mike walked on water.”

“His very spirit as a person was that he was just a gentle soul – not a mean bone in his body,” John said. “Mike was still Mike all the way until the day he died. The essence of who he was as a human being was still there.”

Dan Sharp, athletic director at Joliet Catholic Academy, said he and Mike were both part of Catholic High’s class of 1974. As a “second stringer,” Dan occasionally blocked for Mike, “which was a great thrill,” he said. Mike “was a tremendous football player and a “tremendous baseball player,” Dan said.

“He was admired for his athletic talent,” Dan said. “But he was loved for his humility and kindness.”

Deb said she met Mike on blind date when she was 27 and he was 29. They both loved sports and outdoor activities, so Deb found it easy to talk to Mike and knew she’d found “someone worth investing time in,” she said. Deb and Mike had three children: Kyle Condon of Iowa, Kaitlin Condon of Plainfield and Lindsay Condon of Chicago.

Early in their marriage, Deb and Mike golfed, ran and took long bike rides together, often biking 40 to 80 miles at a time. Mike received an electric bike for Father’s Day 2020, although he only rode it a couple of times, Deb said.

“Our kids were in every sport imaginable,” Deb said. “As the kids’ sports overtook ours, we didn’t golf anymore. But we continued to bicycle.”

Mike was “kind to anyone he met,” very funny, easy-going and humble, Deb said. He never boasted about his accomplishments and had a knack for flipping conversations away from himself and toward another, Deb added. She said one of Mike’s patients always tried to engage Mike about Mike and always left saying, “He did it again. He got me talking about myself.”

Deb said she and Mike traveled across the U.S. for years with their children’s sports competitions in soccer, volleyball, basketball and hockey. She and Mike grew close, sometimes finishing each other’s sentences, because “we had this connection that just really worked,” she said.

They set a goal of either installing a swimming pool in their yard or buying a condo in Florida or a lake house. But they put that off in favor of the kids.

“He was just a really, really good person, a strong family man,” Deb said. “He was strong in his faith and definitely stronger in his faith when he got sick.”

Mike had chemotherapy, radiation and immunotherapy. He gave up his practice, worked for another chiropractor for a time and then volunteered at the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic, Deb said.

Shawn Marconi, executive director of the Will-Grundy Medical Clinic, praised Mike’s work with the patients. Jacqueline Latham, officer manager, said she didn’t realize Mike was fighting cancer until he died.

“He was just pleasant and loved what he did,” Jacqueline said. “Then we found out we weren’t going to get to see him again.”

Deb said, “We thought the tumor was dead. So we went to Ireland with our children in November 2019. In January, the tumor started growing again.”

So Deb and Mike decided to buy a lake house.

“Knowing that Mike worked very hard, and we did well to save, I wanted him to enjoy the fruits of his labor,” Deb said.

Mike and his family spent nearly every weekend last summer to the end of October at that lake house, Deb said. Then one day Mike said, “I can’t do this anymore,” went into palliative care and died three weeks later, Nov. 24, at the age of 64, Deb said.

“Our kids were great, and they were around us a lot,” Deb said. “But because we had that lake house, they were there every single weekend. So he spent a lot of quality time with our kids at the end of his life. I have absolutely no regrets about it.”

Remember the patient that always tried to get Mike to talk about himself? That was Larry Wiers of Plainfield, who’s “been a teacher and administrator and professor for 50 years,” he said.

Larry said he’d known Mike’s family since he was 10, so when he needed a chiropractor, he went to Mike.

“I always went in trying to find out something about Mike, but I just couldn’t do it,” Larry said. “He was so other-centered, so concerned about other people, that you just couldn’t turn the conversation toward him; he’d redirect it back to you. He treated my back, but I think he treated my mind more. He was that kind of nourishing, gentle soul like few I’ve ever met. He was a gem, a real treasure. Just a great listener. Such a beautiful human being, really.”

Larry said he always tells his students that “it’s not pie in the sky to say you can change the world, one student at a time.”

“And I’ve often thought about people like Mike,” Larry said. “If we could just, in our teaching, create one more Mike – if the world were full of Mike Condons – we could really change the world.”

• To feature someone in “An Extraordinary Life,” contact Denise M. Baran-Unland at 815-280-4122 or dunland@shawmedia.com.