Former Orland Park Police Commissioner and Public Works Director Remembered

Gerald “Jerry” Monnett is remembered for his service to the Village of Orland Park and for helping to create the Orland Park Pioneer Football Program.

Monnett, 79, died December 28 in Ocala, Florida.

“My dad started the Orland Park Pioneers with Pat Franz in 1976,” said Darren Monnett, the third of Monnett’s four sons.

The elder Monnett and Franz are credited with starting one of Orland Park’s longest running youth sports groups. In the mid 1970s, Franz was the village’s first director of the newly formed Recreation Department, having proposed the department’s creation to the Village Board. Monnett was the village’s director of public works.

“My dad and Mrs. Franz presented the idea of a youth football program to the Village Board and when it was approved, my dad got the equipment, started setting up the teams and got the field ready,” Monnett said. “He also coached for several years,” he added.

Jerry Monnett’s two younger sons played Pioneer Football as did two of his grandsons, Jared and Jake Monnett.

A Chicago native, Monnett grew up in Chicago and Worth. After graduating from Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Monnett served in the United States Marine Corps from 1953 to 1956, being discharged at the rank of corporal. He served in the Marine Corps Reserves until 1961.

Monnett married the former Shirley Dickey on May 10, 1957 and the couple moved to Orland Park on December 1, 1958. They lived on Hibiscus Drive for 12 years before moving to a home on West Avenue.

Jerry Monnett served as an Orland Park police officer and as police commissioner from 1960 until the early 70s when he was named director of public works, where he served until 1982. When he left the village, Monnett joined a partnership with Cooper Auto Salvage, an Orland Park business that had relocated to Gardner, Illinois. He then managed C & D Auto until his retirement. Shirley and Jerry Monnett moved to Ocala, Florida in 2000.

“Jerry was also of the first Pioneer football coaches,” Franz recalled. “He helped with ordering the equipment, getting men to volunteer and spent many hours getting the program started,” she said. “We named the program the Pioneers because it was formed in 1976, during the country’s bi-centennial,” Franz explained.

Franz remembered the support Monnett provided for youth sports in the growing community. “As public works director, Jerry helped the Recreation Department by supplying the manpower necessary to maintain the softball and football fields and setting up for events,” Franz recalled. “He might have complained but always did what we asked,” Franz said smiling, adding, “The Recreation Department was his favorite place to stop for a coffee break.”

“Our sons were very proud to play in the program that their grandfather helped create,” Darren Monnett said.

Like their father Darren, Jared and Jake Monnett are both kickers. Jared plays for Sandburg High School and Jake recently ended his last Pioneer season being in eighth grade. Darren Monnett went on to play for Sandburg High School Football and then at Northern Illinois University. He now trains kickers across the country in addition to his full-time job.

“The Pioneers gave me a good foundation and it’s a great program with alumni who have gone on to enjoy outstanding football careers,” Monnett said.

The Orland Park Pioneers count among their alumni Northwestern Football Coach and former player Pat Fitzgerald and Michael Schofield of the Denver Broncos.

“My dad was very happy with how far the Pioneers have come,” Monnett said, “Over the years, they’ve had great adults involved with the program and a number of players have gone on to play high school, college and even pro ball.”

Monnett added, “Steve Budick, who is the boys’ athletic director and has coached for the last 15 years, played Pioneer ball as a kid, played for Marist, at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and for the Green Bay Packers. There’s a lot of history with the Orland Park Pioneers.”

Jerry Monnett is survived by his wife of 57 years, Shirley; four sons, Greg, Mark (Renee), Darren (Jennifer) and Ric (Irene) and eight grandchildren, Kyle, Brendan, Tony, Alyssa, Graciela, Jared, Jake and Zachary.

“My dad was very involved with Orland Park and he really liked the community feel of the town back then,” Darren Monnett said. “Everybody knew everybody. Kids would play in the neighborhoods and you knew there was a parent keeping an eye on them,” he recalled.

The Monnett family will receive friends at the Robert J. Sheehy and Sons Funeral Home, 9000 West 151st Street in Orland Park on Thursday, January 15 from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.