Obituary of Daniel George Thornborough

Daniel George Thornborough passed away peacefully from cardiac arrest on April 21st, around 11:00 pm. He was 55 years old. He is survived by his wife, Renee Thornborough (nee Abboud), and his three children, Kate, Sarah, and Claire, his mother Dixie Thornborough, and his brothers and sisters Lori Osbron, Pam, Jeff, Paul, John, David, Elizabeth Baruffi-Rinaldi, and Eric, and hosts of extended family and friends. He was preceded in death by his father Gilbert Thornborough and his sister Therese Rogers.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s get on to the real part. Daniel was always an unconventional man. Mere weeks before his passing he gave Sarah a coupon for a free bundt cake and told her very seriously, “If I die, make sure to use this coupon before it expires.” Don’t worry Dad, we did. We got a lemon one, and a chocolate one for Mom. He also mentioned that he would not want any funeral services, and instead we should have an ice cream party with a bouncy house. Sadly, Congdon Funeral Home does not provide space for bouncy houses, but rest assured that his wife and daughters and sons-in-law (not officially but basically) will make a trip out to Culver’s for mini ice creams.

Daniel had a large heart, both literally and figuratively. In the winter he often carried extra hats and gloves for anyone who looked like they needed them. When Kate was moving away for college he gave her a toolbox, which was the most useful present she had ever received.

He also was “always building rocket ships” as Mom would say. He embraced every new project with excitement, because it was an opportunity to buy a new tool, as well as to reinvent the wheel tackling the project itself. He once spent six hours helping Claire find a solution to her art project (the solution, of course, being a very simple contraption that Claire was suggesting the whole time). To bribe his family into going to the home improvement store he told his daughters they gave out free candy with every purchase.

He loved watching movies and tv shows, to the point that he quickly ran out of the usual popular options and had to delve deeply into the weirder waters of cinema. Sarah would bravely sally forth with him, binge watching all manner of tv shows, from sci-fi to family cartoons to foreign pieces d’art. Some became family classics, like the Finnish Christmas horror movie “Rare Exports”. Others didn’t stick.

Wake services will be held on Thursday, May 2nd at Congdon Funeral Home in Zion, IL at 4:00pm, followed by an Eck celebration of life at 7:00pm. A visitation will be on Friday May 3rd at St. Patrick’s Church in Wadsworth, IL at 10:00am, followed by a Catholic Mass at 11:00am.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to help complete Dan’s biggest project - finishing the barn. We have a Go Fund Me page set up, with further details listed, https://www.gofundme.com/3tucv7-barn-raising.