Greg Zanis dedicated his life to honoring the victims of mass shootings and natural disasters across America.
For the last 25 years, the carpenter from Illinois was known as “Cross Man,” delivering about 27,000 of the handmade wooden memorials that have become painfully familiar at the scenes of some of the nation’s worst tragedies.
He announced his retirement from the project in November and was diagnosed with terminal bladder cancer in March. He died Monday, according to his family. He was 69.
"R.I.P. Dad," his daughter Susie Zanis wrote on Facebook, according to NBC News. "I know you were ready to go but we weren't ready to lose you."
Last Friday, a parade of well-wishers in the Aurora community drove past his home in cars and motorcycles for more than two hours, honking and waving and leaving signs of support on his front lawn, according to The Associated Press. One man played bagpipes. A sign on one passing vehicle exclaimed “A Hero Lives Here.” Another simply said: “Bless you.”
Zanis watched the procession from his front door while seated in a wheelchair. His wife, Susan, was by his side.
His charity was sparked by tragedy in his own life — the murder of his father-in-law in 1996, which prompted him to start “Zanis Crosses for Losses.”
“I just feel like it was a calling only I could have filled,” Zanis told NBC in a recent interview.
Zanis’ handmade crosses featured the name of each victim and sometimes religious symbols to recognize a victim’s faith. He paid for the ongoing project with his own money and also with help from donations.
In an interview with NBC News last year, Zanis said he had become overwhelmed by the increased frequency and scale of mass shootings.
Among the places where Zanis’ crosses have appeared include the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut; the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida; and the Las Vegas concert massacre in 2017.
When a former warehouse employee killed five people in his hometown of Aurora, Illinois, in 2019, Zanis built crosses for all the victims, according to NBC.
Last summer, he drove 22 crosses to the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, and then had to rush to Dayton, Ohio, the next day after a mass shooting there.
Zanis told NBC News his phone would ring immediately after nearly every mass shooting as more people became familiar with his work.
“This is all they have left,” Zanis said of the families in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt from El Paso after the mass shooting there. “I know it means the world to them.”
A GoFundMe page has raised nearly $100,000 in Zanis' name to help his family cover funeral and other expenses.
There was no word whether someone else would continue Zanis’ work.
