By Lauren FitzPatrick
Staff writer
From the time a neighbor plopped little Max Gottardo Jr. on a pony and let the youngster ride around Chicago’s Roseland community, the boy was hooked on horses.
Some 70 years ago, before the community was fully developed, a man with a barn of horses loaned the pony out to the little children up the street.
“Max was always riding on the pony,” said his sister-in-law, Jean Gottardo. “That’s how he started loving horses.”
Flash forward to post-Korean War, when a shell-shocked soldier sought something to do at the Hawthorne Race Course in Stickney. There, Mr. Gottardo would renew his love of horses and spend 44 years helping in the stables and with the horses.
There, in a little apartment, he lived out the rest of his life.
“He liked it so well, he just stayed there,” his sister-in-law said. “He lived right there at the track.”
Mr. Gottardo died Monday of complications from kidney disease. He was 74.
“He was gentle with the horses and wouldn’t hurt a fly. I guess they trusted him,” Jean Gottardo said.
The sixth of 10 children, Mr. Gottardo was born on Aug. 18, 1932. He was raised in a bustling Roseland home.
His father was a lifelong Sherwin-Williams paint salesman who worked at a local paint store. His mother stayed home to care for her brood.
Mr. Gottardo graduated from Fenger High School.
After war broke out in Korea, Mr. Gottardo was drafted into the U.S. Army and shipped overseas. Serving from 1953 to 1955, he was in country for more than half that time. He was awarded a Bronze Star medal.
Whatever Mr. Gottardo saw on the battlefield changed him profoundly, his sister-in-law said.
“When he came back from Korea, he was a little shell-shocked,” she said. So he started hanging around the Hawthorne Race course in Stickney. They gave him odd jobs to do, and eventually he worked there as a maintenance man.
For 44 years, Mr. Gottardo pitched in wherever he was needed.
“He just did everything with the horses, she said. “Anything from mucking out the stalls to giving the horses baths, massaging them, walking them, cooling them off.”
He did everything but race the horses.
At 5 foot, 9 inches, he was built more like a cowboy than a jockey.
Years ago, Mr. Gottardo developed kidney disease and needed frequent dialysis. For two decades, he traveled three times a week to the Hines V.A. Hospital for treatment.
Mr. Gottardo, who never married, continued to work until his illness took over some eight years ago.
“He still chose to live (at the track), and they let him,” Gottardo said. “He was part of the place by then. He knew everybody, and everybody knew him.”
He never fished or hunted or golfed or had any other hobbies, she said.
“Just him and his horses,” she said.
Aside from his sister-in-law, Mr. Gottardo is survived by his sisters Theresa Mucha, Rose Copenhaver, Millie Watson and Rita Vinci; a brother George Gottardo; and many nieces, nephews and friends.
Arrangements were by Panozzo Bros. Funeral Home, (708) 481-9230.
Lauren FitzPatrick may be reached at lfitzpatrick@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5964.
