Gale C. Corley, BiographyPorter County biographical sketches . . . .
Transcribed biography of Gale C. Corley
THE GALE C. CORLEY FAMILY
Gale C. and Lillian Corley came to Porter County on their wedding day, September 12, 1937, to live briefly in Hebron, then move to Valparaiso in January, 1938, while Gale was manager of farms scattered from LaPorte County to Joliet. Gale was from Cowden, Illinois and Lillian from Clinton, Illinois, graduates of their local schools and later students at the University of Illinois, where Gale graduated in 1936.
The farm management soon evolved into a real estate business and that into homebuilding with special interest in prefabrication. National Construction Corp. was the major company founded by Gale Corley. He completed 27 subdivisions in Porter, LaPorte and Lake counties, building more than 3000 homes plus other buildings. Professionally he served as president of the Valparaiso Board of Realtors, several homebuilders' organizations including the Home Builders Association of Indiana of which he was a life director, on committees of the National Association of Home Builders, and was a member of other related associations. He served on the Valparaiso Plan Commission for five years, and was on the advisory committee for Beatty Memorial Hospital at the time of his death September 29, 1973.
As a volunteer Gale was involved with work for the first stage of Porter Memorial Hospital, the Jaycees' "It Pays to Play" program which later became the Valparaiso Park System, the Porter County YMCA's original construction, the nine-hole addition to the Forest Park golf course, and years of preliminary work for Porter-Starke Services, Inc. Other activities included serving as president of the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees (receiving the first Distinguished Service Award), the Porter County YMCA, Porter-Starke Services, Inc. and the Mathesis Club. He served many years with the Girl Scout camp building program, was a director of the Porter County Guidance Clinic, a member of Rotary, the American Legion and the Saturday Evening Club, and was both elder and trustee of the First Presbyterian Church. During World War II he served five years with the 1st and 8th Armored Divisions, half of that time as a major in the 88th Reconnaissance Squadron, which he eventually commanded.
Lillian Corley has been associated with her husband's business for many years and is continuing with it since his death. She has been president of the Valparaiso Girl Scout Council, the East Lake-Porter Counties Girl Scout Council, Chapter J.P.E.O., and the Presbyterian Women's Association as well as president of Indiana State Chapter, P.E.O., and was a director of the Community Concert Association for twelve years. Presently she is on the board of directors of Porter-Starke Services, Inc. and chairman of the board of trustees of the Program for Continuing Education of the P. E.O. Sisterhood, an international organization for women. She is listed in WHO'S WHO OF AMERICAN WOMEN.
There are two daughters in the Corley family. Dr. Sue Ann Peyton (Mrs. John D.) is a physiologist with the Ohio State Agricultural Experiment Station at Wooster, Ohio, where she lives with her husband and two sons, James David and Robert Thomas Peyton. Dr. Ellen Corley is Acting Dean of the Evening Divisions of Northwestern University and lives in Valparaiso and Evanston, Illinois. Both daughters are graduates of the Valparaiso schools.
Source: American Revolution Bicentennial Committee of Porter County. 1976. A Biographical History of Porter County, Indiana. Valparaiso, Indiana: American Revolution Bicentennial Committee of Porter County, Inc. 180 p.
Page(s) in Source: 92
This biography has been transcribed exactly as it was originally published in the source. Please note that we do not provide photocopies or digital scans of biographies appearing on this website.
Biography transcribed by Steven R. Shook