Kurt Grahnke on Washington Island (photo by Eliza Grahnke)

WASHINGTON ISLAND, Wi.–The best books contain discovery on every page. Over the summer we had a book signing for my Camper Book at  Fair Isle Books on Washington Island. We drove my  blue camper van off the Washington Ferry (built in 1989 in Sturgeon Bay) on to the island of 35 square miles.

There are no bridges on this island, but there are timeless connections.

The cozy book store was one of our first stops. I always like to make sure my books are in the store. Book store owner Deb Wayman had a note for me.  It was from Gwen Gotsch, an Oak Park resident and long time visitor  to the island. I had not seen Gwen in years. Her husband Lon Grahnke changed my life. Lon died on Sept. 1, 2006 of complications from Alzheimer’s disease. He was 56 years old. He loved Washington Island.

Lon was editor of the Suburban Sun-Times when he hired me in 1981. He became the Sun-Times features editor and TV critic. Lon launched my Chicago Sun-Times career that ran until 2014. My style improved under Lon’s watch. Often described as our own Lou Grant, he taught me how to slow down, open my mind and stand up for words that count. Every word within every moment.

Kurt looked like a young Lon, standing straight with a classic White Sox cap on his head. Lon lived long enough to understand his beloved ChiSox won a World Series.

Lon appeared to be everywhere during the 24 hours we were on the island. Our hosts Kathy Sparrenberger and  unofficial Washington Island mayor Julian Hagen suggested dinner at the Sailor’s Pub restaurant in a marina that affords a stunning sunset view over the water. Unbeknownst to us, Gwen and her 27-year-old daughter Eliza were sitting at the next table.

Later that night Julian said that my photographer Jon Sall and I must partake in the legendary bitter’s shots at Nelsen’s Hall Bitters Pub. Gwen and Eliza weren’t in the room for those shenanigans, but Lon must have been.

Before the next afternoon’s book signing Gwen and Kurt took me to Lon’s beloved School House Beach, which he first visited in 1968. The beach is framed by old cedar, pine and birch trees, all adorned with fearless branches that will live forever.

The sun started to come out as we walked along the beach, named after the island’s first log school house (circa 1850)  We talked about the future and the past. I remembered how Roger Ebert always went to Lon for fact checking. Lon loved “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He was a full force union leader and he protested the Vietnam war in 1968 at Morton West High School in Berwyn. Kurt had heard some of these stories, I’m sure. Others he needed to hear again. He was only 13 years old when he lost his father.

I sensed that this was my most meaningful journey of the summer. I bent over to pick up a  limestone rock as a bookmark of my visit. School House Beach is only one five sandless beaches in the world. Gwen smiled and said I wasn’t supposed to take the glacier-polished rock in respect of beach preservation. It belongs to the island, where cold winds seem to arrive too early.

Kurt is now 25. He has seen a lot and he has lived more than that. He majored in German and minored in philosophy at Denison University, where he graduated in 2015. After graduation he completed a post-baccalaureate pre-med program at Loyola University in Chicago.

This fall he is starting medical school Loyola University’s Stritch School of Medicine. Last weekend Kurt and his family attended his White Coat Ceremony which officially makes him a student doctor, class of 2022. Just think, by 2022 the White Sox will be in World Series contention again!

Gwen witnessed the ceremony with profound pride. In her compassionate blog The Perverse Lutheran, she wrote, “I was sitting on a white chair, somewhere between earth and heaven. I looked into the future, I held the past in my heart.”

Kurt is embarking on writing his first novel. He is an accomplished surfer, notably along the surfer’s paradise of Sheboygan, Wi. In a recent e-mail Kurt wrote me, “I accumulated a quiver of three surfboards and a couple thick wetsuits, because the best waves for surfing on the lake typically occur during the fall, winter and spring when the water is really cold. With 10,000 miles of coast line on the great lakes there are still plenty of incredible waves out there that haven’t been surfed.

“There is something special about that.”

That full force discovery is so Lon.

In July, 2017 Kurt lost his older brother Kris to ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Scerlosis). Kris was just 30 years old. He owned a master’s degree in education from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2013, specializing in behavior intervention. Kris helped take care of Lon during his early onset Alzheimer’s as well as Eliza, who has Down syndrome. Kris also married wife Michelle in 2013.

Kris was a special education teacher at Whitman Post Elementary School in Rockton, Ill. He was diagnosed in 2014, his first year with the Rockton School District. Kris continued to teach. He was a complete game pitcher. The first year of teaching Kris used a cane. During the second school year he relied on a wheelchair. He resigned after the 2015-16 school year. In March 2016 the ALS Association Greater Chicago Chapter’s inaugural IronHorse Ball honored Kris for his dedication and fund raising efforts.

The Chicago White Sox surprised Kris with a World Series trophy presentation as part of their #SoxStories. Kris was invited to the old Cell as part of the 10th anniversary of the White Sox 2005 title. The event was arranged by Kris’s boyhood friend Jeff Becker and Michelle–who gave away her ticket to the game because she is a Cubs fan. Here is the video of Kris Grahnke’s “Day with the Sox.”