Gorke, Joe 1987

He was in the 94^th Joseph Aloysius Gorka/Gorke

Joseph Gorke was born in St. Louis on November 11, 1918, to Joseph Gorka/Gorke and Teresa Croak. He had a brother Robert born July 20^th, 1926. He attended St. Teresa and Holy Name grade schools and graduated from McBride high school.  His father coached and he played soccer in Fairgrounds Park for many years.  He worked for Emerson Electric before joining the army.  He went to Officer Candidate School and was stationed at Fort Riley Kansas; stationed at he was in the 94^th Division.  He was married at Fort Riley in May of1941 to Eileen Antonette Swanson. They had a daughter Sharon born in1942.  When war broke out, he was sent to North Africa in charge of prisoners of war.  He was able to play soccer during this time with some of Germany’s best soccer players.  Later in the war he was sent to fight in Okinawa.  When the war ended, he returned to St. Louis and joined the St. Louis police department.  When the war ended, he remained in the active reserve.  When the Korean war broke out in the 50’s he and quite a few other St.Louis police were called up and he served two years in 341^st MP Division  stationed at Fort Rucker Alabama. In 1055 he left the police department and joined Mallinckrodt as a security guard at their Warrenton plant.  He, Eileen and Sharon moved to Florissant in 1956.  In late 1960 his eldest grandson Steven started playing soccer and Joe volunteered to coach.  Steven did not continue playing but Joe continued to coach.  During this time (in the late 60’s) he became the last elected Public Administrator for St. Louis County.  After his term it became an appointed position.  He also worked for the state after that until his retirement.  He became a widower in 1987.  He continued to coach boys’ soccer and eventually helped coach women’s soccer at Illinois State University up until a couple of years before he passed on May 2, 2002.