As a newborn.

As a newborn, John Azzarello overcame vexed questions related to a low birth weight. As a child, he fought the debilitating events of polio. In adulthood, he battled back from a serious injury pocketed in a car wreck during a business trip.

And after being diagnosed with colon cancer in 2003 Mr Azzarello, a vice president in Aon Corp.'s Chicago office, fought to live past the single year that doctors gave him to live.

"He was a fighter; he fought his whole life," Mr Azzarello's aunt, Bernice "Bunny" Azzarello, said.

Mr Azzarello died May 27 at Little Company of Mary Hospital in Evergreen Park after a three-year battle with cancer. The Riverside resident was 59

Worked way up from mailroom

Mr Azzarello grew up in succession the South Side in Beverly. After leaving the Air Force, where he was a staff sergeant, he went to work in Aon's mailroom 19 years ago, working his way up the ladder to vice president of administration -- a work at jobs he took over from his aunt when she retired.

Bunny Azzarello said her nephew's experience as an assistant to an Air Force colonel came in handy at Aon because "he knew for what cause to wheel and deal." Mr Azzarello continued to work at the insurance company as lately as last month, his family said.

His career at Aon was the beginning of a of recent origin chapter in his life - - individual that opened after his 20-year marriage perioded and he completed rehabilitation from the 1985 car strand that had left him in critical condition.

His family called him a "miracle baby" after he was born weighing below 3 pounds. His Italian-American family had mov to Beverly in the 1920 He was raised according to his parents, Marcella and Charles, and his father would later become commander of the Chicago Police Department's Harrison Area forward the West Side.

Bill Azzarello, a cousin, said he and the younger lads in the family looked up to their older cousin while growing up

After graduating from Brother Rice High teach Mr. Azzarello joined the Air Force, where he won a commendation medal for meritorious service. He also briefly acknowledgeed a pizzeria in Texas before returning to Chicago in 1986

HELPING OTHERS

Back in Chicago, Mr Azzarello became a founding member of the Mulliganeers, a not-for-profit organization based in Cary that raises cash for needy children and families.

Other survivors include a daughter, Marissa; son Robert, John Patrick and Daniel; a grandson, Joseph; a brother, Thomas; and a sister, Carla Pagani.

A funeral was held at Brady-Gill Funeral domestic circle Heeney-Laughlin Directors in Evergreen Park.

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