Ronald J. Serpe

Ronald J. Serpe, 87, of Clarendon Hills passed away April 24, 2022, at the at Maple Glen Memory Care Community.

Born in 1934 to Jasper and Josephine Serpe on Chicago’s East Side, Ron spent much of his life in a 30-mile radius of the neighborhood where he was raised and still had many of the same friends he had spent his childhood with.

Ron graduated from Mt. Carmel High School and attended DePaul University. After serving in the Army he tried a number of careers before landing on auto parts. Ron opened Expressway Auto Parts with a partner in the mid-1960s overlooking the Dan Ryan Expressway and eventually took over the business as a sole practitioner and grew it to six stores throughout Chicago’s south and east sides. Ron was a longtime member of the East Side Lions Club and the Jaycees.

Although Ron loved living close to his roots, he also enjoyed traveling and never missed an opportunity to visit somewhere new or much-loved throughout the US and abroad. A generous man, one of his many catchphrases was “Anything I can do for you?” and his friends and family knew he really meant it.

Ron met Barbara A. Hill in 1955 and the pair married in 1957, eventually celebrating 60 years of marriage before her death in 2018.

Ron is survived by his three children, Jo Ann (Chip) Wickens, Ron (Lyndsay) and Toni Gentleman; six grandchildren, Connor and Erin Wickens, Maxwell and Jasper Serpe and Jack and Michael Gentleman; his sister Helen A. Drobac; and his nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by his brothers, Robert and Louis.

A celebration of life will be held from 9:30 to noon Saturday, June 18, at Sullivan Funeral Home, 60 S. Grant St., Hinsdale.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made online to the Alzheimer’s Association at https://www.alz.org.