The son of immigrants from Sicily who was six years old when his father was killed in a hit-and-run accident, Mr. Bua dropped out of school at age 15 to help support the family by peddling newspapers and selling his mother's meatball and beef sandwiches to delivery truck drivers.
Mr. Bua joined the Army at the beginning of World War II and earned a high school equivalency degree while serving in the infantry. After the war, he attended DePaul University on the G.I. Bill, receiving both his undergraduate and law degrees in four years.
Beginning his law practice in 1953 with an insurance company as a personal injury trial attorney and partner in Garretson & Bua, he was elected judge of the new Melrose Park Village Court in 1963.
Mr. Bua became an associate judge of the Cook County Circuit Court subsequently after judicial reform and was a circuit judge from 1971 until 1976, when he was elected to the Appellate Court.
He sat for only a year before President Jimmy Carter appointed him to federal court in the Northern District of Illinois. He retired in November 1991 and returned to practicing law.
As a federal judge, Mr. Bua was known for decisions that expanded the Shakman Decree prohibiting Chicago and Cook County from dismissing employees for political reasons. His judgments in 1979 and 1983 effectively blocked the city and county from hiring employees for political reasons.
Mr. Bua was a partner in Burke, Weaver & Prell from 1991 to 1999, and he became of counsel to Holland & Knight the next year. He was a member of the CPR Institute for Dispute Resolution panel of distinguished neutrals and a panelist for the American Arbitration Association.
The Justinian Society of Lawyers presented its Award of Excellence to Mr. Bua in 1978. "He was a judicial and legal giant in the Italian community," said Justinian past president John Locallo, "and a man whose leadership and friendship will be missed."
Leo Blaber
Retired Chicago financial institution executive Leo B. Blaber Jr., a 1957 graduate of night classes at the DePaul University College of Law while working as a junior officer at Chicago National Bank, died Oct. 20 at age 74 of cancer in his Oak Park home.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., Mr. Blaber received a business degree at the University of Notre Dame before serving in the Army from 1951 until 1953. He was counsel to First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Chicago from 1958 to 1968.
Joining St. Paul Federal Savings and Loan Association in 1968, he saw the institution grow from one office to 15 locations with assets of more than $1 billion.
Mr. Blaber left St. Paul in 1980 for the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago. He was president when he retired in 1991 after the financial crisis in the savings and loan industry.
He came out of retirement in 1994 to become president and chief executive officer of the Regency Savings Bank in Naperville, and retired from that position in 1996. He was a volunteer with Oak Park community housing and development groups.
Robert Boyer
Winnetka attorney Robert M. Boyer died Oct. 23 at age 83 of pneumonia in Evanston Hospital. A 1948 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he started the legal department at the Leo Burnett advertising agency in Chicago.
Born in Nebraska, Mr. Boyer was an Army Air Corps lieutenant and bomber navigator during World War II. During his first mission over Germany, he parachuted to safety when his plane was shot down and he flew 27 more missions.
Joining Leo Burnett in the early 1950s, he became a mentor to younger attorneys and used his knowledge of immigration law to help relocate more than 50 employees to overseas offices. He retired in 1994 and later provided pro bono legal advice to immigrants who were settling in the United States.
Leonard Green
California investment banker Leonard Green, a 1965 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, died Nov. 1, at age 68 after heart surgery while on vacation in Venice, Italy. Born in Philadelphia, he had a master's degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton Graduate School.
Mr. Green was a founder in 1969 of Gibbons, Green, van Amerongen, a management buyout firm that specialized in non-hostile leveraged transactions. He later established Leonard Green & Partners in Los Angeles, a merchant and investment banking firm that acquired several companies.
In 1986, Mr. Green became a founding director of the Los Angeles Opera. He was president and chief executive officer from 1999 until 2001, when he was elected board chair.
Richard Hahn
Byron attorney Richard J. "Rick" Hahn died Oct. 24 at age 44 of kidney cancer in his home. A 1983 graduate of the University of Iowa College of Law, he was a partner in Smith, Hanson & Hahn.
President of the Village of Progress Park for two years, Mr. Hahn remained on the board. Also vice president of the Byron Board of Education, he had served on the boards of the Ogle County Hospice Association, Meals on Wheels and the Byron Bank.
Edwin King
Retired trust and investment attorney Edwin King of Glen Ellyn died Oct. 20 at age 92 of heart failure in a Downers Grove nursing home. A 1937 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he began his career with DuPage Title Co. in Chicago and Wheaton, and later was with Chicago Title and Trust.
Mr. King joined American National Bank in 1953 and rose to the position of vice president of personal trusts and investments. He retired in 1974, but later headed the Trust Division at Suburban Trust and Savings Bank of Oak Park.
Mr. King taught sales at Rutgers University and trust law at Northwestern University. A world traveler who visited 54 countries, he wrote poetry and took classes at the College of DuPage. He was active in the Holy Name Society of St. Petronille's Catholic Church in Glen Ellyn.
Lisle Menzimer
Rockford attorney Lisle W. Menzimer died Oct. 1, two days after his 100th birthday, in the Wesley Willows Retirement Center. He had been of counsel to Conde, Killoren, Bueschel & Calgaro.
A 1927 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Mr. Menzimer practiced with Fred H. Smith in Rockford until 1940, when he formed the firm of Pedderson & Menzimer with Clifford A. Pedderson.
A past president of the Winnebago County Bar Association and the Rockford Chamber of Commerce, Mr. Menzimer was a former potentate of Tebala Shrine Temple and exalted ruler of the Rockford Elks Club. He served on the boards of the Burpee Museum of Natural History and several local corporations.
Joseph Moore
Retired judge Joseph C. Moore II of Hoopeston died Oct. 15 at age 74 in Community Memorial Hospital. A native of Kansas City and 1952 graduate of the University of Missouri Law School, he was mayor of Hoopeston from 1961 to 1965.
Mr. Moore was a partner in the Hoopeston firm of Moore, Nelson & Stipp until 1985, when he was appointed an associate judge of the 5th Circuit in Danville. He left the bench and in 1993 formed the Danville firm of Davis & Moore, which became Davis, Moore & Delanois.
A past president of the Vermilion County Bar Association, Mr. Moore also was president of the Hoopeston Rotary Club, the E&I Club and Hubbard Trail Country Club.
Timothy Reardon
Springfield attorney Timothy J. Reardon died Oct. 22 at age 67 in St. John's Hospice. Formerly of counsel in the Springfield office of the Chicago firm of Athas, Apostol, Kowal & Reardon, he chaired the ISBA Labor Law Section Council in 1987-88.
A 1966 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Reardon was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1974. He was a eucharistic minister and parish council member at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church.
Frank Roumbus
Assistant DuPage County state's attorney Frank D. Roumbos died Oct. 16 at age 34 of leukemia. The son of immigrants from Greece, he worked his way through school and graduated in 1994 from the DePaul University College of Law.
Mr. Roumbos joined the state's attorney's office in 1997 and was assigned to the Domestic Violence Unit. He was promoted to the Felony Division to handle cases of abused, neglected and delinquent children, and was named Outstanding Prosecutor of the Year in 2001 for trying the most cases.
Peter Wilson
Former Aurora attorney Peter K. Wilson Sr. died Oct. 9 at age 92 of heart failure in his Boise, Idaho, home. He was a graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law.
A Navy intelligence officer on the USS Franklin, an aircraft carrier in the Pacific during World War II, Mr. Wilson received the Purple Heart and a Navy Commendation. An active volunteer in the Boy Scouts, he was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award.
In 1967, Mr. Wilson became a professor in the Boise State University School of Business, where he taught business law until he retired.
Survivors include two sons, Peter K. Wilson Jr. of Mickey, Wilson, Weiler, Renzi & Andersson, Aurora, and 16th Circuit Judge James M. Wilson of Yorkville.
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