Former Joliet cop killed while trying to help woman whose car had rolled over

LINCOLNSHIRE — Delbert "Gordon" Gandy, a former Joliet police officer, died Tuesday after he was struck by a vehicle while he was trying to help a woman whose car had rolled over on Route 59 in South Barrington, police said.

Fernando Delgado, the head fencing coach for Adlai E. Stevenson high school in Lincolnshire, where Gandy coached fencing for more than a decade, was not surprised Gandy intervened.

"Gordy died doing what he always tried to do, helping someone in need,” Delgado said in a statement. “He will be truly missed.”

Gandy pulled off Route 59 between Bartlett Road and Penny Road in South Barrington about 1:15 a.m. to help a 21-year-old Carpentersville woman whose car had gone off the road and flipped on its side, according to a news release from the South Barrington Police Department. A 53-year-old St. Charles woman was traveling south on Route 59 when she struck Gandy, police said. Gandy was taken to St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates where he was pronounced dead.

Gandy coached fencing in the Chicago area for more than 30 years, and, for more than a decade, he coached the Stevenson high school team.

He helped fencers advance in the sport and grow in their appreciation of it while coaching students at Stevenson from 2003 to 2016, a news release from the high school stated. Gandy also coached fencing through the Crimson Blades Fencing Academy in Libertyville, the College of Lake County in Grayslake and the Bristol Renaissance Faire in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

He served in the U.S. Marine Corps as well.

There will be a celebration of Gandy's life from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday at American Legion Post 294, 212 Washington St., Morris, and burial will take place at 2 p.m. the same day at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, 20953 Hoff Rd., Elwood.

Gandy's relatives could not yet be reached for comment.