Back where it belongs: Family of suburban Pearl Harbor veteran receives his missing Purple Heart

In the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 1941, Jerome Even was on guard duty at Pearl Harbor when he and his fellow soldiers noticed airplanes with Japanese insignia overhead.

Initially, the men thought the planes were decoys. Then the bombs started falling. They were under attack.

Even ran to the barracks shouting “air raid” to the sleeping officers. Disbelieving, they threw shoes at him. A nearby explosion convinced them he was telling the truth.

Wounded during the attack, Even was awarded a Purple Heart, a medal given to soldiers injured or killed while serving. But a decade after his passing in 2014, Even’s medal was no longer in his family’s hands.

That is until last week, when Illinois State Treasurer Michael Frerichs returned the medal to Even’s family, after it had been found in an unclaimed safe deposit box.

According to Even’s son, Jim Even, his father put the Purple Heart in a bank safe deposit box along with his honorable discharge papers, high school ring and some coins.

“We knew he had it (a safe-deposit box),” said Jim Even, “but we thought he had cleared it out. We didn’t think there was anything in there.”

Jerome Even, a longtime Park Ridge resident, died in 2014 at age 92. The contents of his safe deposit box ended up in the custody of the State Treasurer’s Office’s unclaimed property division.

Fast forward to November 2021 and Frerichs’ launch of Operation Purple Heart, which so far has returned 11 Purple Hearts to their owners. In May, the treasurer’s office unveiled a new webpage, illinoistreasurer.gov/purplehearts, that lists lost medals and asks for the public’s help in identifying owners.

“Our ask is simple. If you recognize a name, then reach out to them or their family because maybe we have their Purple Heart,” Frerichs said in a prepared statement.

That’s what happened to the Even family. After checking the website, about a dozen people called him wondering if one of the medals belonged to his family.

It’s nice to have the original back, Even said, noting that one of his sisters had obtained a replacement medal from the Department of Defense.

“We were very surprised and happy,” said Even, who will add the Purple Heart to a shadow box containing his father’s medals.

Promoted to master sergeant, Jerome Even served five years as a navigator and gunner. Returning to Chicago, he earned an accounting degree from DePaul University and went to work for Arthur Anderson. He and his wife Germaine moved to Park Ridge, where they raised their five children.

Jim Even said he found letters from his grandmother to his father dated Dec. 8 through Dec. 12, 1941, asking if her son was alive. His father didn’t receive the letters until a week later when he telegraphed her that he was safe. The elder Even earned other awards for his World War II service, including an Air Medal, Good Conduct Ribbon, and the Asiatic Pacific Campaign Ribbon with four battle stars.

Jim Even said his father rarely initiated conversations about his wartime service.

“Dad would often say, ‘Why would I want to talk about that?’” Even recalled.

That was typical for the Greatest Generation, he said. They were stoic. They did their duty and moved on with their lives.

“I never had the privilege to serve as my father did, but I honor his sacrifice by serving veterans in a different way,” said Even, a learning specialist with DePaul University’s Center for Students with Disabilities, whose clients include veterans.

“We all want to be remembered when we’re gone,” he said. “This is a good way to honor and remember those who’ve passed.”