Custodian remembered for love of racing


By JILLIAN COMPTON - jcompton@nwherald.com
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WOODSTOCK – Charles Kayse died slowly in the same room from the same disease that killed his mother four years ago.

For him, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also called ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, started in his hands and arms, bringing spasms that made holding a cigarette or cup of coffee impossible.

Kayse, 52, died Wednesday at home.

He knew what he faced before doctors diagnosed him in June 2005, but his father remembered a few jokes he used to make while the disease was still in the early stages.

“He said: ‘I’m going to live 10 years, because I got the long kind,’ ” John Kayse Sr. said.

Before the illness, he worked for a decade as a third-shift custodian at McHenry County College.

During the day, he worked in the yard, played with his children and delivered newspapers, often sleeping only two or three hours a day, his family said.

He loved NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon and Elvis Presley and insisted on wearing long sideburns and watching NASCAR races every Sunday. His daughter, Cammi, 17, taught him to play guitar, and he serenaded his wife, Betty, with “Love Me Tender” on her birthday last May.

As Kayse’s disease progressed, he needed 24-hour care, so his father sat with him during the day, and Cammi slept on a nearby couch at night. The family kept the same promise they made his mother: Neither of them ever spent time in a nursing home.

Health insurance didn’t cover all his medical expenses, so a McHenry County College union social committee organized two luncheons that raised about $6,200. The Illinois Federation of Teachers Local 1642 donated $500 this summer, and the college’s Harmony Committee is planning to set out a box for donations at the holiday party next week.

The response was overwhelming, even though few people at the college had ever met Charles Kayse, said Amy Carzoli, who organized most of the efforts.

“In fact, it’s been incredibly heart-warming to see how many people are willing to donate time and money,” she said, “to someone they don’t know but who they feel a connection to through MCC.”
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Oboe Master Gomberg Dies At 85

Ralph Gomberg, one of the top oboists in the United States and a fixture of the Boston Symphony's woodwind section for 37 years, has died at 85.

Gomberg died last weekend at a hospice in Wayland, Mass., of primary lateral sclerosis, a neuromuscular disease better known as Lou Gehrig's disease, said his wife of 58 years, Sydelle Silver Gomberg.

Gomberg played with the Boston Symphony Orchestra from 1950 to 1987.

He taught at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore; the New England Conservatory; Boston University and the Berkshire Music Center. Many of his former students are principal oboists of U.S. symphony orchestras, the Boston Globe said.

Gomberg was born in Boston's West End, the youngest of seven children. Several of them were as musically talented as he was and also played professionally.

He used to joke that it would be daunting to find a quiet room in which to practice.

Gombenrg is survived by his wife, three daughters and seven grandchildren.