Woodridge Father Filled Home With Love, Humor

While raising his four children, longtime Woodridge resident Richard McCormick didn’t believe in ruling with an iron fist.

Instead, the married father of four relied on his quick wit.

“When we misbehaved in public, he would start singing at the top of his lungs,” said McCormick’s daughter, Susan Carroll. “He’d say, ‘When you stop embarrassing me, I’ll stop embarrassing you.”

Carroll also recalls the lessons her older sister received on how to close doors properly -- “Instead of getting mad and yelling at her for slamming the doors, she had to open and close the doors nicely over and over”-- and her father’s “long lectures” on how to behave properly.

“And if you interrupted he’d say, ‘Now I’ve lost my place and I’ve got to start all over again,’” Carroll said with a laugh. “I remember thinking during those horrible lectures, ‘Those kids who just get hit and it’s over with are so lucky.’”

But today, Carroll, married and with children of her own, looks back with fondness on those times.

“It was actually very instructive and taught us a lot more than screaming and yelling or physical punishment would have,” she said. “Discipline should be more about teaching and the kid learning what to do or not to do.”

Richard and Carol McCormick moved to Woodridge in 1961, and continue to live in the same house.

Susan Carroll, who now lives in Downers Grove, said she and her husband and their children often go back to her childhood home to visit her parents.

“My children love to go over and play games with grandpa,” she said. “We’ve even gone on vacation with grandma and grandpa and not killed each other, so that’s good.”

When it came to disciplining his children, McCormick said “I just used the things that came into my head.”

“I felt embarrassment was a prime motivator of young children,” he said.

McCormick also used his own father, who died when he was 19, as an example.

“I still remember him and wanted to be as good of a dad as he was,” McCormick said. “And he always had some kind of joke.”

He was especially inspired by his father’s “family first” mentality.

“Family was the most important thing to him,” McCormick said. “And it’s also been the most important thing to me.”