Plymouth Place honored its residents and donors with its annual Legacy Tea Sunday, presenting an U.S. Astronaut as the guest of honor.
Dr. Joseph Kerwin, whose wife Lee lived at Plymouth Place until her 2021 passing, gave the 150 people gathered in the main ballroom a condensed version of how he became an astronaut.
Already a graduate of medical school before being drafted into the U.S. Navy, he and his wife Lee watched a news report relating how the Navy was looking for scientists astronauts to enter the Space Program.
“You probably want to do that,” Lee said, whereupon he replied, “I’m not a scientist, but yeah, I want to do it.”
Kerwin, an Oak Park native and graduate of Fenwick High School, earned his B.A. from Holy Cross University and graduated from Northwestern Medical School in 1957, where he met Lee (then Shirley Ann Good). They were married for 62 years and had three daughters together.
He became a Naval Aviator and logged slightly more than 4,500 hours flight time before being tapped to be part of the Space Program.
Kerwin was the Capsule Communicator for lunar mission of Apollo 13, the mission plagued by an exploding oxygen tank that left three astronauts in danger of being lost, only to be saved by using the lunar module, Aquarius, to power it back to a position to return to earth.
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His was the voice on the ground that uttered the famous words, “Farewell Aquarius, and we thank you.”
Kerwin later took part in the 1973 mission Skylab II, where he made history by becoming the first American physician in space. Skylab II also made history by becoming the first American mission with humans to the nation’s first orbiting space station, and the first mission from any country to go to a space station and return humans safely.
After retiring from the Navy, Kerwin worked in private industry for Lockheed (now Lockheed Martin) and served on the NASA Advisory Council.
Introduced by Robert McDonald, his wife’s favorite resident assistant and longtime employee of Plymouth Place, Kerwin related how he came to choose Plymouth Place as a residence for his wife when her health began to deteriorate.
The family had first chosen another facility in Texas to care for Lee, but Kerwin said it was “no way” as good as the care at Plymouth Place, describing Plymouth Place as “an example of what they can be when they grow up. The care here is so much better than the other places we saw.”
Kerwin singled out McDonald as particularly helpful, saying “the way he treated her was awesome. Not just some days, but every day. Robert and I are friends now.”
Former La Grange President Elizabeth Asberger began the program.
“Plymouth Place is a great community,” she said before offering a quote from Coretta Scott King, “the greatness of a community is measure by the compassion of its members.”
Before the event, Plymouth Place CEO Jay Biere spoke of the reason behind the day’s festivities.
“Every year we do this to honor the residents, donors and Board members who have given philanthropically,” he said. “We’ve raised over $900,000 this year.”
Biere noted that the finds raised would go for equipment, scholarships, services, and the organization’s reserve fund.
Also honored at the Legacy Tea were Jack Meyers and Graham Sackley, local teens who began a nonprofit, “Senior Celebrations,” in 2019. Their original idea was to create and organization with their classmates dedicated to sending Birthday cards to seniors.
When COVID-19 hit, they regrouped and became and organization that also delivered hand-typed letters to seniors, developed a pen pal system, and created histories of seniors that are on file at the Library of Congress.
Moreover, they created a 5K run, the “Lion Mile & 5K,” held this past July that raised over $19,000 toward Carhart Garden, a 2,300 square-foot rooftop garden for Plymouth Place residents to relax.
Hank Beckman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.