Epilogue

Michael Elroy Denon Simmons, a former member of the ISBA Board of Governors, died March 12 at age 44 of cancer in his Racine, Wis., home.

A 1988 graduate of the Washburn Uni-versity Law School, Mr. Simmons had prior experience in the Adult Probation Department of the Lake County Department of Court Services, where he became one of the first intensive probation officers in Illinois.

He was an assistant Lake County state's attorney for 10 years before entering private practice as a criminal defense attorney.

Chicago attorney Laertes Tylbert Bell died March 28 at age 73 at the University of Chicago Hospital. A 1963 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he had a private practice for more than 20 years before joining Commerce Clearing House as a law editor.

Retired Chicago attorney Claib Lee Cook Jr., a resident of Glenview, died in March at age 73. A 1959 honors graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law. He practiced with Chadwell & Kayser for 30 years and was a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

Retired Chicago attorney Kalvin Myron Grove, a resident of St. Petersburg, Fla., since 1990, died March 23 at age 68 in Bayfront Medical Center. Formerly of Northbrook, he was a 1961 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.

Additional information has been ob--tained about Clark Chapman King Jr., whose death on March 6 at age 76 was reported in the March issue.

A 1954 graduate of Harvard Law School, Mr. King served three years in Army Intelligence and was an assistant Illinois attorney general before joining Lord, Bissell & Brook as a trial lawyer.

Skokie attorney Leonard H. Lauter died March 30 at age 78. He was a 1954 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law.

Retired Chicago bank attorney Nelson Hall Layman died March 17 at age 92 of heart failure in the King-Bruwaert Nursing Home in Burr Ridge.

A 1937 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, Mr. Layman joined the Northern Trust Co. as a management trainee and served as a Navy officer in the Pacific during World War II.

He returned to the bank as a loan officer and correspondent banker. When he retired in 1979 after 37 years, he was a general vice president and senior staff officer in marketing.

Mr. Layman was a past president of the Illinois Bankers Association Public Relations Division and a member of the American Bankers Association Public Relations Council. He was on the faculty of the IBA graduate school and the Grain Exchange Institute.

A former officer of Goodwill Industries, Mr. Layman served on the advisory council of the University of Illinois-Chicago College of Business and was a trustee of George Williams College.

He was a past treasurer of the University Club of Chicago and a member of the Hinsdale Village Board, the Robert Crown Center for Health Education board and the Hinsdale Hospital Advisory Council.

Joseph Bryan McDevitt, a 1952 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law who became a Navy rear admiral, died Feb. 26 at age 88. He was a resident of James Island, S.C.

Mr. McDevitt commanded a PT boat in the South Pacific during World War II, was injured during a Marine landing at Saipan, and participated in liberation of the Philippines.

After the war, he studied international law at the Naval War College, became a military treaty lawyer for President John F. Kennedy, and negotiated the release of U.S. sailors imprisoned in North Korea.

Mr. McDevitt was legal advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and later Judge Advocate General. He received a Purple Heart, two Bronze Stars, the Distinguished Service Medal, two National Defense Service Medals and the Philippine Liberation Medal.

In retirement he was executive director of People-to-People International and an attorney and trustee of Clemson University. He received an Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award from Southern Illinois University.

Cairo city attorney Michael Patrick O'Shea Jr. died March 8 at age 54 of a heart attack. A 1976 graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, he was a former Alexander County state's attorney.

James Robert Phalen of Washington, D.C., a 1962 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law, died Feb. 10 at age 68 of pancreatic cancer in Bethesda Nursing Home.

After law school, Mr. Phalen was in the Army Judge Advocate Generals Corps for seven years, including service as president of the Foreign Claims Office in Thailand and legislative counsel in the office of secretary of the Army before retiring as a major.

Mr. Phalen became minority counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Small Business Committee, minority staff director of the Appropriations Committee, and chief of staff for a Massachusetts congressman.

Later principal deputy assistant secretary for congressional, intergovernmental and public liaison with the Department of Energy, he received a Meritorious Service Award for his work on the Energy Policy Act of 1992 and the Waste Isolation Pilot Project authorization.

Retired Wheaton attorney Elmer Branch Pierce died March 23 at age 91 in the Wynscape Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. A graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law, he was an Army captain in North Africa and Italy during World War II.

Mr. Pierce was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1949 and joined Chicago Title Insurance Co. in Wheaton and Geneva. He retired in 1979 and practiced for 20 years at Peregrine, Stime, Newman, Rotzman & Bruckner.

Chicago attorney Timothy E. Rogus died in March at age 41. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1996 and practiced in the Law Office of Jeffery Leving.

Victor G. Rosenblum, the Nathan L. Nathanson professor emeritus at the Northwestern University School of Law, died March 13 at age 80 of congestive heart failure in Evanston Hospital.

A graduate of the Columbia University Law School who also had a doctorate in law from the University of California-Berkeley, he joined the Northwestern political science faculty in 1958, was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1960 and began teaching law in 1962.

Except for two years as president of Reed College in Portland, Ore., Mr. Rosenblum was a distinguished legal scholar and professor at Northwestern for almost 50 years.

He also was an associate counsel for a U.S. House of Representatives committee reviewing government operations in 1957-58 and a member of the executive committee of the Chicago-Midwest Region of the Anti-Defamation League from 1971 to 1995, with a year as its chair.

Mr. Rosenblum was president of the American Association of Law Schools in 1987 and chair of Americans United for Life in Chicago from 1989 to 1995. He served on the board of Constitutional Rights Foundation Chicago for 30 years.

Former Chicago attorney Bernard H. Siegan, a law professor at the University of San Diego for more than 30 years, died March 27 at age 81 in a convalescent care facility in Encinitas after a stroke.

After Army service during World War II, Mr. Siegan graduated in 1949 from the University of Chicago Law School. He was an attorney and real estate developer in Chicago until 1973, when he joined the San Diego faculty.

Mr. Siegan's 1987 nomination by Presi-dent Ronald Reagan to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit failed to gain Senate approval.

Chicago real estate attorney and developer Robert Harold Weitzman, a Deerfield resident, died April 1 at age 68 of lung cancer in his son's Chicago home.

A 1963 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Mr. Weitzman worked his way through school as a professional wrestler, “Dr. Justice,” at Rainbow Arena. He wore a robe and carried a gavel.

After law school, he became legal counsel for the Continental Bank Real Estate Department. He left in 1977 to become a co-founder of Group One Investments.

Mr. Weitzman chaired the Chicago-based Real Estate Investment Association and the national education committee of the Real Estate Securities and Syndication Institute.