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| Boompa teaching tiny Amos how to work an Etch-A-Sketch |
July 12th is the 26th anniversary of the death of Irwin Vincent Wiley: son of Alfred (Snaz) and Wanda Wilkoshesky; brother of Norbert, Alfred, Carl, Eugene, Steward and Blanche; husband of Frances Sheehan Wiley (Boom Boom); father of Mary Claire, Helen and (not biologically but in heart) Pat Leonard; grandfather of 14; cousin, uncle, nephew and friend to scores more. We called him Boompa.
He was born June 25, 1904, in Chicago, and died on this day in 1994 in California. He was a pure-blooded Polish-American who graduated from Tilden Tech at age 14, then from Crane Tech at 16 and became a professional engineer in his teens, a title he held for almost 50 years.
As a Civil Engineer, Boompa worked his entire career with the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railroad, also known as the Milwaukee Road. He started in 1922 as a rodman and worked up to assistant engineer at his retirement in 1969. Known as the Chief of Ways, Boompa worked from Chicago to Montana with surveyor's tools like slide rules, and wrote with beautiful penmanship in small notebooks. Check out pages 6 and 17 in this copy of the Milwaukee Road Magazine.
When he was 14, he came downstairs in the morning, his mother gave him his lunch pail and kissed him goodbye. He went off to school, and never saw her again. It was 1918, and the Spanish flu epidemic was sweeping Chicago, and everywhere else. She died that morning and was carted away to the city morgue and buried before any of the kids could see her again.
We are all sure that the Wileys/Wilkosheskys are back together again in heaven, thanks be to God. Thanks for watching over us, Boompa.
God bless us and save us and keep us from harm.
Love, Patty
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