John Gorday

GORDAY, John

Age 50, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in Chicago, Illinois, on October 25, 2025. He was born at Nashville, Tennessee, to Peter and Virginia Gorday.

John is deeply missed by many loving school classmates, best friends, and co-workers, all of whom remember him for his charm, fine sense of humor, intellectual sparkle, and tender affection. He was a 1994 graduate of the Paideia School in Atlanta, and received his B.A., with a major in art history, from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1999. Ever a lover of contemporary music and the fine arts, he moved to New York City, whose robust cultural life he enjoyed for many years. After working in the publishing and public relations field, he trained and qualified as an EMT, then paramedic, with the FDNY. His interest in fine haberdashery led him into retail sales at Saks Fifth Ave., where he excelled, netting "Million Dollar Book" status for five successive years, then achieving the status of style advisor for the Loro Piana Men's Shop. In one memorable bit of praise from a supervisor, John was described as a salesman who "serenaded the product." Dislocated by the pandemic, he decided to enter the insurance industry and completed a masters degree in Risk Management and Risk Analytics at St. John's University in Queens, receiving along the way a special scholarship and membership in the Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. As a property and casualty insurance underwriter at General Insurance of New York, then at Seneca Insurance in Chicago, he enjoyed the challenges involved in calculating policy terms and conditions for brokers in the field.

Confirmed in faith by Bishop Bennett J. Sims at St. Luke's Episcopal Church, in Atlanta, John was baptized into Christ's one Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church by Bishop William E. Sanders, at St. James the Less, in Madison, Tennessee, in 1975, where his father served as the priest-in-charge. His devoted godfather is Robert V. Smythe of Nashville, Tennessee, whose prayers fo John will long be remembered and cherished. Special thanks to John's steadfast companions, Matt and Mike. Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord.