 
|
|||||||||
              
|
Many praise 'gentle giant' who was everyone's friend
Tuesday, March 07, 2000 By Robert Dvorchak, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
There were two very personal tributes paid to John Kroll before the lid was closed on his casket.
His younger son, Steven, placed his father's favorite hammer inside. It was the tool the 55-year-old Kroll wielded to build so many things.
"It wasn't just any hammer. He used to tell people, `Nobody uses that hammer but me,' " said John "Jake" Kulikowski, who had known Kroll since their boyhood days in Lawrenceville.
Kulikowski added the second item. It was a compact disc of the 16 most requested songs of Frank Sinatra, Kroll's favorite artist.
"He had every record Sinatra ever made. That was his man from way back when we were teen-agers," Kulikowski said. "He liked his music."
Kroll, shot to death last week after he had finished fixing an apartment door in Wilkinsburg, was buried Saturday in Butler County. His family requested that the service be private.
Yesterday, friends from his old neighborhood in Lawrenceville recalled him as "a gentle giant" who built things with his hands and built friendships with his heart.
"All the man did was work," said Kulikowski. "You won't find anybody to say anything bad about him. The real tragedy here is what happened to the families of all those who were killed. How are these families going to put their lives back together?"
Kroll, a former baseball pitcher who once had a tryout with the Boston Red Sox after playing for Lawrenceville in the Federation League, grew up within two blocks of Bob Adamski.
Kroll was in Adamski's wedding in 1967. And even though Kroll moved to Cabot in Butler County 17 years ago, he got together with his old pals once a month to play pinochle in Adamski's house.
"It was just a way to stay in touch. It was a regular game on Friday nights," Adamski said.
"It won't be the same without him. You'll never meet a nicer guy in your life. He always had a smile. He was somebody you'd be glad to know," Adamski said.
His friends say that Kroll never mentioned any run-ins with Ronald Taylor, the man charged in the shootings that took three lives and wounded two others. Taylor flew into a rage and threatened one of Kroll's co-workers, but no one knew of any arguments with Kroll.
"John didn't even know him. He was just there doing his job," Adamski said.
Jackie Baird, Adamski's sister, said Kroll was not one to get into arguments with anyone.
"He was a gentle giant. He never wanted any confrontations. He was one to walk away. There just wasn't a person that didn't like him," Baird said.
"It was just an awful, awful thing. I was just so stunned when I heard. You just don't want to believe something like that could happen," she added. "Nobody can imagine the hurt this has caused."
Kroll was a fixture at the Adamski house, staying for supper, playing ball, trading baseball cards, singing his Sinatra tunes. Later in life, he was helping with projects -- new roofs, porches and additions. He also installed the basketball hoop outside Jackie Baird's house.
Now his friends' thoughts are with his family. Kroll leaves a wife and three children, including a daughter, Elizabeth, who will graduate in May from Edinboro University.
Those friends want to finish a job Kroll never got to complete. He was doing some remodeling at his own house, but it is left undone.
"You could call John any time and he'd be there," Baird said. "We were just talking about finding the time to finish that work for him when things settle down."
|
||||||||
