State Journal-Register photo. — Rocky Schoenrock at his desk at the State-Journal Register. He worked as an artist, among other jobs, and painted beautiful churches in Central Illinois that graced the Christmas Morning front page of the State-Journal Register for about twenty consecutive years. SJ-R phot.

by John Boch

General George Patton once said, in so many words, that it’s “foolish and wrong” to mourn the loss of great and honorable men who have died, but rather than we should instead thank God that such men lived.

Indeed, it is with a heavy heart that we at Guns Save Life, and our friends at our sister group Sangamon County Rifle Association, that we note the passing of Rocky Schoenrock in Springfield.

Rocky was a member of Sangamon County Rifle Association before it was Sangamon County Rifle Association. His day job was at the Springfield, IL State-Journal Register, but on evenings and weekends, he (and often his wife before she passed away) were hip-deep in support of gun rights and promoting gun ownership among the good guys.

He helped out working scores of gun shows in the Sangamon County area for SCRA. He helped Joel Gain, Jim Butler and others distribute thousands of copies of GunNews each month and before that, the SCRA publication “Freedom Watch“. If there was a project, you could count on him to help.

For twenty-plus years, he was there working shoulder to shoulder with Jim Butler and other key people working tirelessly at the grassroots level for gun rights and against gun grabbers.

Rocky Schoenrock was a darn nice guy too. He always had a cheerful greeting and a kind word to say.

He passed away last week from complications from an elective surgery.

What many of us didn’t know was his intriguing history, particularly during World War II.

The SJ-R had a nice write up on his life.

But first, let us all give thanks to the good Lord for giving us men like Rocky Schoenrock.

Dave Bakke: Church artist Rocky Schoenrock was one of a kind

(Springfield State Journal-Register) – As word of Rocky Schoenrock’s death spread around Springfield on Thursday, people began clicking on our newspaper’s online gallery of Rocky’s paintings of Springfield churches.

That was his claim to fame. His paintings of churches graced the front page of the Christmas Day newspaper for more than 20 consecutive years. See the collection at bit.ly/rockychurches.

I had done a column not that long ago (Sept. 17, 2014) about how his daughter, Penny Skaggs, had created a quilt that contained all 22 of his church paintings. The originals are still on a wall here at the newspaper.

“I thought she did a remarkable job,” Rocky told me then. “I never realized it at the time, but people collected those pages from the newspaper.”

Rocky died Wednesday. Penny, of Springfield, said her dad had gone into the hospital for a cardiac procedure. He had been suffering from a rapid heart beat and a leaky cardial valve. There were complications, and he never left the hospital.

Aside from his church paintings, Rocky was known for his World War II exploits in the Navy. Before his 93rd birthday earlier this year, former State Journal-Register columnist Toby McDaniel wrote a four-page history of Rocky’s war experiences. Read it at bit.ly/rockybytoby.

He gave it to Rocky on his birthday. “Every year,” Toby says, “his daughters would invite me to go eat with them somewhere. I gave a copy to him and his girls. He has three daughters. He was one of a kind, a really good friend since the early days when I came here and he was the artist at the paper.”

According to the war history Toby wrote, Rocky shipped out in 1943 on the USS Inch. The Inch sunk a German U-boat, or its captain scuttled it under fire, and took 44 prisoners aboard. Luckily for them, Rocky spoke German. Not so luckily for Rocky, the captain put him in charge of all the prisoners.

Later, the Inch definitely sank a U-boat with depth charges.

Rocky was discharged in 1946. In Springfield, he worked for a hatchery and a department store, sold advertising for a sign company, and drove a Dr Pepper truck before being hired by the newspaper in 1959.

I remember him as someone who was quick with a quip and equally quick with an opinion. He was an obviously talented artist and took pride in those Christmas Day front pages that were a Springfield tradition for so long. Politically, he was a conservative’s conservative. We avoided politics and got along just fine.

In 1972, Rocky told his life story to Leslie Leamons for Sangamon State University’s oral history program. In the interview, a transcript of which can be read at bit.ly/rockyhistory, he talked about his German heritage and how it played in World War II.