The event also marks the kickoff of the Peoria Bar/Prairie State Campaign for Legal Services, which has a goal of $100,000 for 2001-02. Co-chairs are Bradley S. McMillan and David A Brown.
Prairie State and the Peoria County Pro Bono Plan have initiated a legal assistance program for military personnel and their families who are affected by calls to duty. Call coordinator Sandra Crow, (309) 674-9831, to volunteer.
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Mark your 2002 calendars for Saturday, Jan. 26, the fifth annual Kane County Bar Foundation Gala, a benefit dinner at the St. Charles Country Club.
Robert Chase, Metropolis, was chief of 1st Circuit
Robert H. Chase of Metropolis, former chief judge of the 1st Judicial Circuit, died Nov. 6 at age 87. He was a 1936 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.
Mr. Chase was Massac County state's attorney from 1940 to 1952 before entering private practice, and in 1955 he formed a partnership with James L. Foreman.
Elected Massac County resident judge in 1970, Mr. Chase retired in 1982 after several years as chief circuit judge. He later practiced in Metropolis with Guy M. Lahr & Associates and the Law Offices of Rock Abell, retiring in 1994.
Survivors include a son, Richard Chase, an attorney with Land of Lincoln Legal Assistance Foundation in East St. Louis.
Ralph Beaman
Plainfield attorney Ralph P. Beamn died Nov. 11 at age 80 in Naperville. A "carpetbagger" in the 492nd Bomb Squadron of the Army Air Corps during World War II, he joined the USG Corporation in Chicago in 1948.
Mr. Beaman received a law degree in 1962 at the Chicago-Kent College of Law and was director of labor relations for USG when he retired in 1987.
Alan Berger
Wauconda attorney Alan John Berger, in his second career path, died in November at age 60. His first career was as a professor of medieval studies at Cornell University and the University of Toronto.
Mr. Berger retired from education after 20 years and graduated in 1985 from the University of Chicago Law School, where he also had earned a master's degree. He held a doctorate from the University of Toronto.
Roy Bergquist
Retired Niles attorney Roy H. Bergquist, a former partner in Bergquist & Rossi, died in November at age 75. After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, he was Maine Township assessor and collector.
Mr. Bergquist graduated in 1957 from the Chicago-Kent College of Law. He was past president of the Niles Lions Club.
Survivors include a son, Philip J. Bergquist, who first practiced with Bergquist & Rossi and later joined Deloitte & Touche in Chicago.
Leela Dabholkar
Leela Mukund Dabholkar of Libertyville, who was an attorney in India before coming to the United States in 1990 to live near her children, died Oct. 29 at age 74. She was a graduate of Bombay University.
Samuel Epstein
Chicago attorney Samuel Epstein died Nov. 15 at age 93 after suffering a stroke. A 1931 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he practiced for many years with his twin brother, Louis N. Epstein, who died in 1989.
George Gilley
South Holland attorney George Dennis Gilley died Nov. 22 at age 79 of a heart attack while playing golf at Flossmoor Country Club, where he was former club champion. A Navy pilot during World War II, he was a 1948 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.
A south suburban lawyer for more than 50 years, Mr. Gilley also was Harvey finance commissioner from 1951 to 1955. In 1960, he became one of the first 30 Holiday Inn franchise holders and opened a 109-unit hotel in Lansing.
Mr. Gilley also was the owner or part owner of Holiday Inns in Rolling Meadows, Elgin, Kankakee and Angola, Ind., and served on the board of the International Association of Holiday Inns.
He was a partner in Gilley & Walberg and later practiced with his son, Thomas A. Gilley.
George Gilley was board chair of First United Life Insurance Company and a board member of South Suburban Hospital, the Community Bank of Homewood-Flossmoor, First Savings and Loan Association of South Holland, and Pima Capital Insurance Company.
Samuel Greeley
Retired Chicago attorney Samuel Sewall Greeley, former board chair of the Masonite Corporation, died Nov. 10 in Evanston Hospital after a heart attack in his Winnetka home.
A 1939 graduate of the Harvard Law School, Mr. Greeley practiced briefly in Chicago before Navy service during World War II as a lieutenant and communications officer in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters.
He returned to law practice after the war and joined Masonite in 1951 as general counsel. He became a board member in 1961, executive vice president in 1966, president in 1970 and board chair in 1976. He retired in 1982.
Mr. Greeley served on the boards of Harris Bankcorp, Signode Steel and other corporations. A trustee of Rockford College from 1979 to 1988, he contributed $500,000 last year toward construction of a sports facility. Sam Greeley Field, a football and soccer stadium, was dedicated Oct. 6.
George Marco
Batavia attorney and real estate broker George Lee Marco died Nov. 5 at age 56. He was a 1978 graduate of The John Marshall Law School.
George Menkas
Retired Chicago attorney George Joseph Menkas died in November at age 92. A member of the Illinois bar since 1931, he served in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps during World War II.
Stuart Nagel
Stuart S. Nagel, a 1958 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, died Nov. 19 at age 67 in Champaign, where he was a professor emeritus of political science at the University of Illinois.
Lacking an interest in practicing law, Mr. Nagel was working on a doctorate in political science at Northwestern In 1960, when he accepted a visiting professorship at Pennsylvania State University.
Within a year, he became an assistant professor at the University of Arizona, where he received his Ph.D. in 1961. He joined the University of Illinois faculty a year later and retired in 1996.
Mr. Nagel served at various times as an attorney for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, the National Labor Relations Board and the Legal Service Corporation. In 1971 he founded the Policy Studies Organization.
Mary Stretch Root
Retired Chicago attorney Mary Stretch Root died Nov. 14 at age 92 in her Norwood Park home. A 1933 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, she shared an office with her husband, a real estate broker, until his death in 1965 and subsequently opened her own office in Edison Park.
Mrs. Root helped establish Resurrection Hospital, and she volunteered legal services there for 30 years. She was legal counsel to the National Catholic Society of Foresters for 22 years.
A member of the Chicago Senior Citizens Hall of Fame, Mrs. Root received a Golden Heart Award from Immaculate Conception Catholic Church for service to the church and community.
Raymond Sarnow
Retired Cook County judge Raymond S. Sarnow died Oct. 29 at age 82 of emphysema in an Arkansas medical center hear his home. He was a 1945 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law.
Mr. Sarnow served in the Appeals Division of the Illinois attorney general's office for 19 years and had been its chief for a year when he was appointed a circuit court magistrate in 1964. He was president of the Cook County Magistrates Association from 1964 to 1968.
Appointed an associate judge in 1971 and a circuit judge in 1975, Mr. Sarnow was elected to the circuit court in 1976 and retained in 1982. He was a case assignment judge and chief motion judge in the Law Division until he retired in 1983 for health reasons.
George Skontos
Chicago attorney George John Skontos, a Glenview resident, died in November at age 65. A 1962 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he was a member of the Hellenic Bar Association of Illinois.
Allan Smietanka
Chicago attorney Allan J. Smietanka, a 1946 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, died Nov. 2 at age 89. A former partner in Smietanka & Garrison, he was of counsel to Mangum, Smietanka & Johnson.
Survivors include two sons who are attorneys: John Smietanka of Stevensville, Mich., and Raymond Smietanka of Washington, D.C.
John Wildey
Attorney John Moffitt Wildey, formerly of Chicago, died Nov. 3 at age 71 in Durham, N.C. He was a 1957 graduate of the University of Miami Law School.
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