Purple Heart Medal’s Owner Identified as ‘a Man’s Man’ Who Fought in WWII

In the final push to defeat Nazi Germany during World War II, Edward Gorski Jr. was trying to shield himself inside a foxhole when the 19-year-old Chicagoan was struck by enemy fire.

Gorski, a broad-shouldered Army private with a rugged face, was hit with mortar shrapnel after a fellow soldier in a nearby trench lit a fire for warmth, accidentally revealing their position to German forces.

It was May 2, 1945, days after Adolf Hitler's suicide and days before the end of the war in Europe. The shrapnel struck Gorski in the face, and he nearly lost an eye, but he survived to share some wartime stories -- including how he earned a Purple Heart for his combat injuries.

"He said you'd see bullets flying, especially at night, and you'd hear them zip," said a son, Scott Gorski, 62, of North Carolina. "He told me as long as you hear them, you're fine. It's when you don't hear the bullet, that's when you're hit."

His father died in early 1993 after suffering a massive heart attack in his Westmont home. The retired private security captain had turned 67 one month earlier.

Another son, David, said that after his father's death he put the Purple Heart and other medals in a bank safe-deposit box but eventually lost track of the box after he moved out of state and the bank closed or merged with another institution.

The family assumed the contents of the safe-deposit box were gone forever until a recent December day when the Tribune tracked them down to say that their father's medals, including the Purple Heart, had ended up in the unclaimed property section of the Illinois treasurer's office.

The office had preserved the medals in a Springfield vault since Oct. 30, 2003, when a Darien bank turned them over as contents from an abandoned safe-deposit box. Treasurer Michael Frerichs is the state's official custodian of unclaimed property, which includes everything from bank accounts and insurance policies to stamps, baseball cards, jewelry and coins.

An estimated $2 billion in forgotten cash and stock has been returned to individuals, employers and nonprofits during Frerichs' three terms, according to his office.

Military medals are often difficult to return because the name under which the property was submitted may not correspond to the name of the honoree. A Purple Heart has no engravings that would identify the recipient or the conflict in which it was awarded. And neither the Armed Forces nor the federal government maintains a comprehensive list.

The treasurer launched a special effort, "Operation Purple Heart," in late 2021 to raise awareness about unclaimed medals.

On Veterans Day weekend, the Tribune detailed its efforts to help identify the veterans who earned 11 Purple Hearts that sat unclaimed in the treasurer's vault. After four months of research, the Tribune succeeded in nine of the outstanding cases.

Frerichs gave one of the Purple Hearts to a Decatur woman last fall, the 12th he has returned during his time in office. Two more families have filed claims for medals since the Tribune wrote about their cases. But the safe-deposit boxes connected to Gorski and another man, Robert Cawthon, remained a mystery.

The Tribune continued digging and, with the help of researchers at the National Archives and Records Administration in St. Louis, unearthed Gorski's discharge papers from nearly 80 years ago. The documents confirmed he earned the same five military decorations -- including the Purple Heart and a blue combat infantryman badge -- as those in the treasurer's vault.

Scott and David Gorski said their father was proud of his military service. They hope to honor his wishes by giving the medals to Scott's oldest son, Shawn, also an Army veteran.

'A Man's Man'

Edward Gorski Jr. voluntarily enlisted in the Army in April 1944, months after his 18th birthday.

The oldest child of working-class parents, he grew up on Chicago's North Side near Wrigley Field. Tall and muscular, he and his brothers looked like their own football team, Scott Gorski said. He wasn't surprised his father volunteered to serve.

"He was a man's man -- there's no doubt about it," he said. "I remember my dad saying, 'Scott, the most important thing about it is keeping the battle on their soil, not ours.' He said, 'When you have a battle on your soil, you've got a lot more casualties and a lot more problems. It just makes sense to bring the fight to them and away from our families.'"

The military records confirm some of Gorski's stories. The infantryman and his battalion pushed from France through the Rhineland toward Austria, facing brutal cold, sleep deprivation and days of bloody, ruthless fighting. He survived significant combat, including a battle in Germany where he was struck by shrapnel in the face and body.

Though he shielded his family from the atrocities he experienced at war, Scott Gorski said his father told him the hardest experiences were the casualties of men in his battalion, including being forced to leave them behind, and when he witnessed the suffering of children.

"The biggest thing to him was some of the things he saw with poverty and kids during the war," Scott Gorski said. "He remembers seeing a child eating grease in the back of a diner ... just scooping grease out of a bin and taking a sugar packet and pouring sugar on it just so he could get it down."

Gorski said his father told him he'd often share his military rations, such as peaches or chocolate bars.

There was one story about a lighter moment that still makes Scott Gorski smile.

After a relentless night of combat, as Edward Gorski and his fellow soldiers made their way through Austria, they spotted children sledding on a snowy hill. Ignoring his lieutenant's command to push on, the soldier driving the truck carrying Gorski stopped to allow the men to run up and down the hill, each taking his turn sledding.

"All they had seen was nothing but fighting," the son said. "He said it made them feel normal for a change."

He said her father's dedication to his country and fellow soldiers is inspiring.

"I couldn't imagine being that age and making those kinds of decisions every moment of the day while just trying to stay alive," Scott Gorski said. "He said you really got to have guys who are looking out for each other, and obviously they did because he said a lot of his guys made it back. Some obviously didn't."

Indulgent Grandpa

As Edward Gorski fought overseas, his girlfriend, Evelyn, worked long hours at a Chicago parachute factory, according to David Gorski, 68, who now lives in Wisconsin.

"They were sweethearts," he said. "I bet every night she went to bed wondering if he was all right. My mother put herself to work as much as her body could handle so she wouldn't think about it."

Edward Gorski returned to Chicago after being honorably discharged in November 1945. He had earned a Purple Heart, a European-African Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with two bronze service stars, a combat infantryman badge, and the good conduct and World War II victory medals, according to his discharge records.

He and Evelyn exchanged vows in a Presbyterian church the following September.

David Gorski said his mother had saved her paychecks to help the young couple begin their lives as husband and wife. They started a family on Chicago's North Side but eventually moved to suburban DuPage County. They lived mostly paycheck to paycheck, with Evelyn staying home to raise their daughter and four sons while working part time selling Avon beauty products.

Gorski worked for a while as a welder but eventually switched careers to private security. He worked 13-hour shifts, six days a week, for many years, David Gorski said.

On some weekends, Gorski took his family on excursions to the Wisconsin Dells, to Springfield or into Chicago for a hot dog at Jimmy's Red Hots, for a Cubs game or to catch perch at his favorite fishing spot, "the horseshoe" near Montrose Harbor on Lake Michigan.

Scott Gorski said his dad "never met a stranger," at times opening his home to a neighborhood kid in need. His patriotic dad played cards with other veterans at local VFW or American Legion halls and put Scott through scouting, helping troop members earn their safety badges by teaching target practice with rifles he acquired for the task.

"There was nothing he wouldn't sacrifice for us," his son said.

Years later, after he retired, Edward Gorski often babysat his first grandchild, Shawn, who is Scott's oldest child. Edward and Shawn shared the same birth date, Jan. 9.

Shawn Gorski, of Geneva, told the Tribune his grandpa "stepped in" at a crucial time after his parents divorced.

Edward took Shawn to fish for bluegills, to play tennis at the courts outside his apartment and for regular trips to Lincoln Park Zoo. He also dutifully attended Shawn's football games and came along for a trip to Disney World in Florida when Shawn was about 5.

"I think he just knew that he needed to be there for me," said Gorski, 39.

Shawn was barely 8 years old when his grandfather died. He still remembers when his mother, Lora Oldham, broke the news to him after he returned home from school. Gorski said he instantly knew his grandfather was gone before his mother spoke the words.

At the services, Oldham said, a woman turned to her son and told him: "You were the apple of your grandpa's eyes."

"And Shawn just started bawling," she said. "He was always so good to Shawn."

After college, inspired to serve his country after the 9/11 attacks, Shawn Gorski followed in his grandpa's footsteps and joined the Army. Gorski said he served from 2009 to 2013 as a signal officer in Germany training soldiers on communications before they were deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq.

He said his grandfather was "my buddy, for sure."

"He was incredibly patient and fun," Gorski said. "It was literally my rules. He had multiple heart attacks and, I think, he knew he wasn't going to live long and so just kind of let it be, you know, just enjoyed it."

Lost Valor

Edward Gorski had a scar shaped like a half "C" beneath his left eye that served as a daily reminder of what he survived during World War II. He also had his medals, which his son Scott said his father kept in a metal Band-Aid tin in his bedroom nightstand.

"I think it meant a lot to him," the son said. "It showed him he wasn't going to run from something."

Scott assumed the medals were long lost, not realizing his brother David had put them in a bank after their father's death.

"I set the deposit box up because I wanted to keep them safe for my parents' oldest grandson," David said. "My dad expressed when he was alive and Shawn was very young that he wanted them to go to him."

David Gorski moved to central Wisconsin nearly 25 years ago with his mother and eventually lost track of the box. The medals ended up in Illinois' unclaimed property section in late 2003. The only information the state had was David's name and a post office box address in Darien.

After researching several families with the same Polish moniker and connections to the western suburbs, the Tribune identified the correct Gorski through obituaries, old addresses, military records and other public documents. One of the records confirmed that David Gorski once held a P.O. box with the same address as the one the bank provided.

The family didn't know about the treasurer's "Operation Purple Heart" campaign. Scott moved to North Carolina the year before his father died. Evelyn, David and an older brother were in Wisconsin. Another brother died in 1995. A sister lived in Florida until recently.

Scott Gorski said he plans to file a claim, with David's help, to get back their father's medals and give them to Shawn.

Edward Gorski is buried at Elm Lawn Memorial Park in Elmhurst. Sadly, his widow died weeks before the Tribune contacted the family with information about her husband's long-lost medals. Evelyn Gorski, who never remarried, died on Oct. 8 in Wausau, Wisconsin. She was 99.

More than 30 years after her husband's death, she is now buried alongside him. Their shared grave marker includes an emblem of a cross, an open Bible and the words "together forever."

Anyone with information about a Purple Heart return, particularly a safe-deposit box connected to Robert Cawthon, is urged to contact the Illinois treasurer's office at claimantconnect@illinoistreasurer.gov. For more information, visit https://www.illinoistreasurer.gov/purplehearts/.

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