Michael G. Gulino

Michael Gerard Gulino (1956–2025), systems specialist and cyber security professional, was born November 3, 1956, in Melrose Park, Chicago, the older son of Loreto (Louis) Peter Gulino: a foreman for the General Motors Company who grew up on a strawberry farm near Amite, Louisiana; and Kathleen (Kay) Gulino (née Hefeli), a secretary and homemaker. Louis’s family came from Sicily, near Palermo, while Kay was of German heritage. Michael and his younger brother, Matthew (1960–2009), were raised in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood, whose small prairie they explored during the summer when they weren’t in Louisiana playing with their cousins. The natural sciences—along with the alien worlds and technologies of science fiction—inspired Michael’s creativity from an early age; when he wasn’t watching his beloved Star Trek, he often tinkered with small appliances around the house to learn how they worked. His passion and aptitude for complex systems would propel his career later in life. Michael was educated at St. Daniel the Prophet School before entering Chicago St. Paul High School. The first member of his family to attend college, Michael enrolled at DePaul University in 1974, where, in a literature class in 1976, he met Paris Stavra Nikolas (b. 1956), whom he married in 1981. He earned his BA in Communications but, having identified the transformative power of computers, he chose to pursue a career investigating their practical applications—first as a technician for the drive systems of electro-motive diesel (EMD) locomotives, and later as a systems and network specialist for such organizations as Digital, the Chicago Tribune, FileNet, Allstate, and the Cook County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, where he worked as an Intelligence Security Specialist. He retired in 2022 at the age of 65. A proud Sicilian who loved the Crescent City, Michael slow-cooked a pot of sausage gravy nearly every Sunday and made a seafood gumbo each Christmas Eve. His love for Greece extended from his love for his wife, Paris—together with their sons, Louis and Jordan, they spent most vacations in the southern Peloponnese with his in-laws, Frank and Mary, observing the Milky Way through his telescope and listening to Pink Floyd.  

Michael Gulino died after a short illness on Saturday, January 18, 2025, at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois, at the age of 68. He is survived by his wife, Paris; their sons, Louis and Jordan; his parents in law, Frank and Mary; his sister in law, Joanne; his nephew, Nicholas; his nieces, Sara and Katie; and his aunts, Virginia and Loretta. The family will be receiving guests on Saturday, January 25, from 9:00 a.m. until 11:00 a.m. at Thompson & Kuenster Funeral Home, 5570 W. 95th St, Oak Lawn, IL 60453. Services and burial will follow at 11:30 a.m. at Chapel Hill Gardens South Cemetery, Oak Lawn, IL.