Cornelius "Casey" John Dirkx

Cornelius John Dirkx, "Casey" 81, of  rural Harvard, passed away peacefully on June 17, 2025 surrounded by his loving family.
Casey was born September 8, 1943 and was the beloved husband of Susie Dirkx for 58 years.
They were blessed with a daughter Robyn Cerny (James), a son David  (Jodi), and two bonus daughters Terri Brugger (Nathan) and Tina Schiller,  7 grandchildren, and two great grandsons. 
Casey grew up on a farm in Northern Wisconsin, one of 10 children in a good Catholic family.   He knew and loved the farm life and quickly learned the value of hard work which carried him through his life. He met Susie in Schiller Park Illinois, and they married on April 22, 1967.
He worked in plant maintenance and engineering his whole career and was very creative, forward thinking and an extremely gifted computer programmer. In his later career he became a freelance engineer and programmed beautiful architectural fountains throughout the Midwest and East Coast.
He was the kind of guy that could look at anything and figure out how it worked, how to fix it or how to make it better. He and his son David would take a car apart and put a new transmission in like most people would change their shoes. He fixed everything around and was always quick to help friends and neighbors.
He was generous with his time and talent and volunteered at St. Patrick's Catholic Church of Hartland, St. Vincent de Paul Society, teaching religious Ed, being a home visitor to nursing homes and homebound, and more.
Casey loved the Lord Jesus and his beautiful Catholic faith. He loved to spend time with his family, he was an avid tennis player, over the years planted 40,000 trees on his childhood farmland, enjoyed camping, trail riding with horses,  four-wheelers, snowmobiles, cross-country skiing and tinkering with his tractors.
Funeral mass will be held at 10:00 AM on Thursday, June 26, 2025 at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church, 451 W. Terra Cotta Ave., Crystal Lake, IL 60014 .
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the St. Vincent de Paul Society.