A past president of the Society of Trial Lawyers, Mr. Garvey was elected to the American College of Trial Lawyers.
William Hapaniewski
Northlake attorney William Peter Hapaniewski died May 9 at age 63. Born in Lublin, Poland, he served in the Army and was a 1983 graduate of the Northern Illinois University College of Law.
Donald Lonchar
Retired Waukegan attorney Donald M. Lonchar Jr., a past president of the Lake County Bar Association (1973-74) who would have been honored this year as an ISBA Senior Counsellor, died May 31 at age 81 in his Sun Lakes, Ariz., home.
A 1955 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Mr. Lonchar had served with the Army Air Corps during World War II in the Asiatic-Pacific area. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal with four clusters, and the Purple Heart. He was a major in the Air Force Reserve judge advocates until 1972.
Mr. Lonchar began practice as an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago and an assistant Lake County state's attorney before joining the firm of Robert R. McClory. A subsequent firm, Lonchar & Nordigian, merged in 1990 with Brydges, Riseborough, Peterson, Franke & Morris.
Chair of the Citizens Advisory Council of Waukegan City Schools, Mr. Lonchar represented the school system for almost 30 years and helped form the Waukegan Community Unit School District.
He was the first lay president of the Waukegan Area Council of Churches and a past president of the Waukegan Exchange Club. He chaired the Supreme Court Committee on Character and Fitness for the 2nd District.
Of counsel to the Waukegan office of Hinshaw & Culbertson in 1997 and 1998, Mr. Lonchar retired that year and moved to Arizona, where he was moderator and council chair of Mission View Community Church.
Stephen Malato
Chicago real estate attorney Stephen A. Malato, a partner in Hinshaw & Culbertson, died May 15 at age 82 in his Chicago home. Born to immigrant Italian parents, he served in the Navy Air Corps during World War II.
A 1949 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, Mr. Malato was a partner for many years in Malato & Stein and Malato, Stein & Grossman. The firm merged with Hinshaw in 1986.
Survivors include a son, Stephen H. Malato, of Hinshaw & Culbertson.
Deborah Owens
Hinsdale attorney Deborah W. Owens died May 29 at age 52 of pancreatic cancer in her Oak Park home. She was a 1986 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law.
Miss Owens received a master's degree in social work from George Williams College and was a social worker for 10 years before entering law school. Her law practice included special education, custody and support, adoptions and guardianships.
Julie Shaw
Retired Chicago attorney Julie Reynolds Shaw died May 6 at age 51 in her Kenilworth home of breast cancer. She was a 1980 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law.
Mrs. Shaw practiced litigation and corporate law at Jenner & Block for 11 years before leaving to raise three daughters. She was married to Andrew H. Shaw of Sidley, Austin, Brown & Wood.
Mrs. Shaw's grandfather, Thomas A. Reynolds Sr., was a partner in Winston & Strawn, as are her father, Thomas A. Reynolds Jr., and a brother, Thomas A. Reynolds III.
Sidney Smith
Pontiac defense attorney Sidney Edward Smith died May 6 at age 79 in St. Francis Medical Center, Peoria. A Navy officer on Guam during World War II, he graduated with high honors in 1951 from the University of Illinois College of Law.
Mr. Smith practiced with Handly & Phillips before open the Sidney E. Smith Law Firm and serving as city attorney. He served on the boards of Winston Churchill Junior College and Evenglow Lodge.
Lowell Snorf
Evanston attorney Lowell Delford Snorf Jr., a retired insurance executive, died May 21 at age 85 of congestive heart failure in Evanston Hospital. He was a Cook County Circuit Court arbitrator.
Mr. Snorf served in the Army in Europe during World War II. He saw action at the Battle of the Bulge and received a Purple Heart and two Bronze Stars.
A 1947 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, he became an assistant counsel at Kemper Insurance Companies, as well as a lobbyist in Washington, D.C., and senior executive officer until 1958.
Mr. Snorf was general counsel and later president of Lansing B. Warner Inc. and was an executive of Wausau Insurance Co. after it acquired Lansing. He retired in 1990 but remained on the board of Lancer Insurance Co. until 2001.
A Life Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, Mr. Snorf chaired the ABA Section of Insurance in 1967 and sat for several years as chair of the Traffic Court Committee. He served on the executive committee of the American Reciprocal Insurance Association.
Mr. Snorf was honored in 1997 as an ISBA Senior Counsellor. Survivors include a son, Chicago attorney Lowell D. Snorf III.
Lee Sparks
Retired Zion attorney Lee Arthur Sparks, a resident of Peoria, died April 20 at age 67 in St. Francis Medical Center. He was a 1967 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.
Beth Steele
Beth Kanehl Steele of Gurnee died May 4 at age 59 in the Hospice of the North Shore, Skokie. A graduate of the Catholic University Law School, she was a legal editor for several publishers, including CCH Inc. in Riverwoods.
James Sykes
Retired attorney James Edward Sykes died May 1 at age 70 in Portland, Ore., where he had been a volunteer court-appointed special advocate for disadvantaged children for six years.
A 1964 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Mr. Sykes was an attorney for for the Rock Island Railroad for many years.
Melvin Trotier
Retired St. Clair County attorney Melvin William Trotier died May 24 at age 90 in Destin, Fla. A 1938 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he practiced in Belleville and East St. Louis for more than 50 years.
Mr. Trotier was an Army officer in the South Pacific during World War II. He served on the ISBA Committee on Public Service from 1964 to 1966 and on the Committee on the Unauthorized Practice of Law from 1978 to 1984.
Sonderby compiled verdict data
Max Emil Sonderby was not a lawyer, but for more than three decades he single-handedly compiled and published a weekly newsletter that was indispensable to astute members of the plaintiff and defense bar.
A Chicago journalist, Mr. Sonderby started the Cook County Jury Verdict Reporter in 1959. He meticulously copied the monetary results of lawsuits while he covered state and federal court news for the Chicago Sun.
He mimeographed his abbreviated compilations and stapled the pages together for distribution to subscribers. He sold the Jury Verdict Reporter to Law Bulletin Publishing Co. in 1991.
Born on the Jutland peninsula of Denmark, Mr. Sonderby settled in Chicago at age 7 with his family. He played football and wrestled at the University of Chicago and received degrees in English and history.
Mr. Sonderby honed his journalism instincts at the City News Bureau of Chicago in the 1930s. He worked for the Sun, later the Sun-Times, from 1941 until 1974, when he retired to devote full time to the Cook County and Illinois Jury Verdict Reporters.
He received a Herman Kogan Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Chicago Bar Association in 1991, and he was honored by the Chicago Press Veterans Association with a luncheon roast in 1995.
Mr. Sonderby died May 2 at age 99 in a New Jersey retirement home after a stroke. Survivors include a son, Chicago attorney Peter R. Sonderby of Umler & Berne, and a daughter-in-law, Judge Susan M. Lewers Sonderby of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Chicago.
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