and Marine Corps. He also kept playing golf, which he had taught him-
self at Ravisloe on Mondays, when the club was closed and he could
borrow clubs from the bag room.
After getting out of the service, Dreesen went to work as an insur-
ance salesman and became active with the Jaycees, helping to spear-
head a program to teach the ills of drug abuse by using humor to
draw attention while planting seeds of knowledge. As a kid, Dreesen
had been entranced watching the Cedar Lodge bartender Frank
Polizzi hold court with his customers by telling jokes.
"I was fascinated by how his words could send a charge
through the air and suddenly the whole place would explode
(Clockwise from top) Tom Dreesen attended
church with his friends Frank Sinatra, Roger Moore
and Gregory Peck. As a boy in a Chicago suburb,
Dreesen was awed by Sinatra's smooth voice.
Dreesen toured with Ol' Blue Eyes for 14 years,
warming up crowds with stand-up, and remained a
friend until the end, serving as a pallbearer at
Sinatra's funeral in 1998. Dreesen came to admire
Sinatra as a man of loyalty and generosity, but an
impatient golfer. "He was like a father to me."
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