Last week, those of us associated with The Wanderer lost a good and loyal friend who was an avid promoter and reader of our weekly newspaper.
Jerome Hronek, 101 years old, was called home by his Creator. Jerome was a faithful Catholic and a true patriot who served his country in one of the toughest battle theaters in World War ll, the Asia Pacific Islands.
I had the honor of meeting this one of a kind gentleman three years ago when I interviewed him for The Wanderer. I will miss his friendship and will always cherish the memory of a man whose character is seldom replicated in the generations that have followed. I know Jerome would appreciate prayers for his soul from our readers. May his soul rest in peace!
— Joseph Matt, Publisher
This interview was originally published in The Wanderer’s 150 year anniversary issue in 2017.
The Wanderer Visits One Of Our Oldest And Longtime Readers . . .
The Man From Pocahontas
By JOSEPH MATT
The Wanderer family owes a great debt of gratitude to its faithful readers, who for over a century and a half have contributed to our success. It is not often we at The Wanderer have the opportunity to meet in person one of the many readers who over the years through their prayers and financial support have helped make our 150th anniversary possible, so it was a great pleasure to have recently met one of those loyal supporters.
Earlier this summer my son and I had the honor of meeting and speaking with one of the oldest current subscribers to The Wanderer. Jerome Hroneck celebrated his 98th birthday a week prior to our meeting. Upon meeting Jerome in person, I was immediately struck by his sharp mind and physical presence. He could easily be mistaken for a man twenty years his junior.
Shortly after our introduction, we were off on a tour of the town Jerome grew up in, Pocahontas, Iowa. Jerome asked to take a drive to visit his family farm on which he was raised. His father sold the farm shortly after World War ll. Jerome wisely repurchased the farm back in the 1980s as an investment. He has not farmed the land personally since he left for the war some 77 years ago. He now subleases the farm to another farmer, but he looks as though he could work the farm at a moment’s notice and still enjoy doing it. When we reached the farm, Jerome immediately displayed a trait probably known only to a true farmer whose natural familiarity and love for the land prompted him to instinctively grab a clump of soil in his hands. As he ran the dirt through his hands, he seemingly gave his approval to the fertile soil for this year’s crop.
As our conversation continued in the car, Jerome said that upon returning from the war he went to college and earned an engineering degree. He then took on a brief teaching stint at the American Agricultural Institute in Iowa and then pursued a career in engineering, which eventually landed him a long-lasting position with the Motorola Company in Phoenix Arizona. He spent an interesting part of his career designing the software and hardware that provide modern aircraft its autopilot technology. He moved back to his hometown of Pocahontas from Phoenix this year.
His physical toughness and his surety of conviction make perfect sense when you realize Jerome grew up on his family farm during the Great Depression and at the age of twenty one was enlisted in the Army destined for the Marshall islands in World War ll. Some of the fiercest fighting of the war was carried on in the Asia Pacific. Talking with Jerome about the experience of literally one day living life as a farm hand to waking up in the theater of war days later – you realize how fast he had to grow up. Yes, it is true what they say about the men of his generation who defended freedom on four continents: These kids went to war as boys and come back as adults almost overnight. What a contrast to today’s “snowflakes” who look for shelter from the realities of adulthood today.
Jerome survived the Great Depression and World War ll and lived to witness the moral decay in our society that has continued to this day. During our conversation, my mind was beckoned back to a time when men were men and our citizens had a natural fear of God and a purpose to their lives. A time when neighbors were neighbors and families strove for the same things in life.
Hard work on the family farm, a mother steeped in the Catholic faith, a one-room schoolhouse, and a war that affected the whole country laid the groundwork for a life of faith in God and love of country and a passion for work in the field of engineering. That was the foundation that brought Jerome to where he is today. But the most compelling force which drove Jerome to be the person he is today was revealed to me later over lunch.
Jerome’s ancestors who immigrated from Czechoslovakia established their roots early on in this small farm town in Iowa as evidenced by a brick opera house built by Jerome’s uncle in the early1900s that still bears the family name to this day, but is no longer in use. We drove by the first church built in the town, the church Jerome attended as a youth, built by early immigrants from Czechoslovakia, in the late 1800s. Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church is now a museum.
We continued our drive, passing the large monument by the courthouse that bears all the names of the residents of Pocahontas who served this country in the military, both living and dead. One is struck by the large amount of people inscribed on the monument who have served this country from such a small town of 1,800 people. Jerome recounted how many draftees were labeled as farmhands and were thought of by the military as “used to hard work” and thus were destined for the “frontlines” on the battlefield. Jerome’s name is proudly displayed among those who served. At one point Jerome is overcome by emotion as he recounts the day he left for the war with four friends he grew up and went to high school with in this small Iowa farm town. Jerome was the only one to return alive – surely a devastating and lasting impact on a 21- year- old kid.
We drove by Sacred Heart Parish the last surviving Catholic Church in town. Sadly, like many Catholic parishes today they lost the grade school years ago due to lack of enrollment. Jerome lamented how much of what the Church taught when he was a kidhas gradually disappeared from the pulpits, schools, and the culture that was so much influenced by the Catholic Church in the early days of his life.
After the War, many in the younger generation even in his own family have given in to the pressures of the culture of the day. Many no longer attend Mass on Sunday. Jerome bemoans the seeming success of many Americans today with their large homes, multiple cars, televisions, and all the other trappings of success, but who lack a sense of morality. The sense of right and wrong and need for God in a world of chaos is lost for the most part.
Not until our conversation during lunch did I understand the driving force that has ruled Jerome’s life from early childhood to the life he lives today. I asked Jerome what was the most important thing in his life: His response was, “You mean other than going to Heaven when I die?” Now I was about to learn the substance behind the man from Pocahontas.
The goal of Heaven was instilled at an early age and to this day Jerome attributes this to why he took his Catholic faith seriously from that day forward. Jerome’s parents could not afford to send him to the local Catholic school at Sacred Heart but his devout Catholic mother made sure Jerome was at Fr. Kolvec’s hour and a half Catechism class every Saturday morning. And it was there that Jerome was first taught it was a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sundays.
Jerome remembers distinctively the words of Fr. Kolvec, pastor at Sacred Heart, from his early catechetical training as a child: “If we die in the state of mortal sin, we will not share in the life of Heaven, we will go to Hell” Jerome said this literally scared the Hell out of him and he still caries this with him today. Truly a lesson every Catholic should know but sadly not one that every Catholic is taught today. It was tough talk, said Jerome, but that’s what put the fear of the Lord in me. And it has served him well for his 98 years and is the reason his Catholic faith is the most important thing in his life.
My visit with Jerome will always be a cherished memory. Shaking Jerome’s hand as we concluded our visit, I felt I truly did meet a member of “The Greatest Generation.”
Leaving Pocahontas, reflecting on the day with Jerome, I think Jerome would concur: All of us could use a little “Hell scared out of us”.
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