 Joseph Geraghty Jr |
A funeral mass for former forklift dealer Joseph Geraghty Jr, 94, took place on 29 November in Rockford. Geraghty died on 22 November at OSF Healthcare System's St. Anthony Medical Center in Rockford.
Among numerous activities, he established Geraghty Industrial Equipment in 1956 as a dealership for Clark forklifts. He became a member of the Clark Equipment Co dealer council and was involved with the Material Handling Equipment Dealer Association.
Gerry Risch acquired Geraghty's Rockford operation in 1988 and ran it as part of Material Handling Services Inc. Risch and his sons, Kevin and Jeff, sold their forklift dealerships in 2001 to the trading company Pon Holdings BV of Almere, the Netherlands. Now, Geraghty's former forklift business is among 37 Equipment Depot branches of the Houston-based Pon North America division within the parent firm's equipment and power systems group.
"Joe was definitely an entrepreneurial individual," says Randy Olson, an Equipment Depot salesman who began working for Geraghty Industrial Equipment in 1984. "Even at 94, Joe still had ideas and thoughts relative to materials handling."
Among those thoughts, "Joe had the steadfast belief in the 1980s that we should come up with a way to lease a (forklift) truck with an operator if somebody called for a short-term rental," Olson says.
In addition to the forklift operation, Geraghty started and owned several businesses including War Assets Disposal, a car wash in 1947, Midway Sales from 1950-1976, five parking lots, scissor and aerial lift dealership Heath Handling, Geraghty Modular Robotics and Geraghty and Associates.
Geraghty was born in Saginaw, Michigan and married Rosemary Claire Handel in 1950. She died in 2007. Survivors include a son, Joseph T Geraghty III, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
Geraghty graduated from St Thomas High School in 1938, attended the University of Chicago and the University of Iowa and joined the US Navy's air corps in 1942. Geraghty and both of his brothers, Bob and Jerry, were US Navy pilots. Over four years during World War II, he was stationed initially in Pensacola, Florida, then flew torpedo bombers and, eventually, made aircraft carrier take offs and landings.
Typically, Geraghty would fly missions between Sanford, Maine and New York City, watching for German submarines that operated in the Atlantic waters off the coast of north-eastern US and Canada and sank Allied ships. Later, the Navy sent Geraghty to the Pacific theatre where he flew Wildcat and Hellcat planes off carriers.
Among accomplishments during 10 years with the Navy reserves, he was to be the first person to fly a jet out of the Naval Air Station in Glenview, Illinois.
The avid aviator was a member of a Rockford group called World War II Combat Flyers and owned his own planes. He dealt with the military chain of command to bring in aircraft and air demonstration squadrons for the Midwest AirFest, which was held from 1986-1994 at the facility known then as the Greater Rockford Airport.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Anne's Center, Holy Family Catholic Church and the Cathedral of St. Peter's School, each in Rockford. Fitzgerald Funeral Home and Crematory of Rockford handled arrangements.