The man, who represented Rockford in Springfield for 28 years, has a highway and a building named after him, is also known as the founder of the Illinois Lottery.
As the Illinois Lottery turns 30, Zeke Giorgi's family remembers.
Over the last 30 years, the "Father of the Lottery" has made a lot of people millionaires.
"He'd always joke about it, I never hear from any of the millionaires," says Giorgi's daughter Barbara Vella.
Giorgi introduced Illinois to the lottery back in 1974, and tickets have been sold ever since.
"There were not a lot of lotteries throughout the U.S. I know he went to another state to study how they did theirs and he brought back the ideas to Illinois," says Vella.
The Rockford legend never would have guessed its popularity would be going strong, three decades later.
"I don't think he saw it as a negative or some sort of evil descent into gambling. He was not a big gambler himself and probably didn't play the lottery very much," adds Vella.
For Giorgi, the lottery really came down to one more dollar for education.
"He knew it wasn't going to be all the money the schools needed but it could be a source of money for the schools without taxing people and they could have fun and of course there's an outside chance they could be a millionaire," says Vella.
And every time, the "daughter of the lottery" sees someone hedge their bets on the winning numbers, Vella thinks of her dad.
"It makes me smile and I know he'd be happy people are enjoying it," says Vella.
The Illinois lottery is a state agency with $1.7 billion in annual sales. Since 1974, the lottery has contributed more than $12 billion to public schools.
The Illinois Lottery is sponsoring Monday's 10th annual Zeke Giorgi Golf Playday. A lottery representative will make a special presentation, as Giorgi's wife Josephine cuts a commemorative cake in honor of her late husband.
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