Anthony Marando Peccarelli of Wheaton, a pillar of the DuPage County legal community for more than 40 years, died Sept. 25 at age 77 of liver cancer in the Naperville home of a friend.

His record included service as a bar association president, a state's attorney, a judge and chief judge, an appellate justice, a mediator, an ethics official and, perhaps equally dear to him, a founder of the county chapter of the Justinian Society of Lawyers.

A 1959 graduate of The John Marshall Law School who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1961, Mr. Peccarelli was an assistant DuPage County state's attorney for six years and subsequently was in private practice until his appointment in 1979 as an associate judge.

Elected to the circuit court in 1982, he was chief judge from 1989 to 1993. His tenure included a hectic seven-month period during which the new County Judicial Center was closed because of air quality problems.

Mr. Peccarelli served on the Illinois Appellate Court, 2nd District, by appointment in 1993 and 1994. In 1995, he was named DuPage County state's attorney to complete two years of the term of James Ryan, who had been elected Illinois attorney general.

Thereafter, he was president of Conflict Resolutions Ltd., a mediation and arbitration service; of counsel to the Wheaton firm of Ottosen, Trevarthen, Britz, Kelly & Cooper, and an 18th Circuit mediator.

He served two terms as the county's first ethics officer after the state ethics law was enacted in 2003. He was a director of the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine and a trustee of Midwestern University.

Mr. Peccarelli was executive director of the Illinois State's Attorneys Association in 1970-71, president of the DuPage County Bar Association in 1972-73, president of the Justinian Society chapter from 1977 to 1979, and founding president of the DuPage County Lawyer Referral Service and Legal Assistance Foundation.

He served on the ISBA Local Government Law Section Council (1972-74) and the Criminal Justice Section Council (1974-77). He served on the Illinois Judicial Conference Executive Committee for five years and was its chair from 1987 to 1989.

In addition to his juris doctorate, Mr. Peccarelli had a master's degree in judicial studies from the University of Nevada-Reno and was a graduate of the National Judicial College.

Retired Skokie attorney Isadore Baskin died in September at age 92. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1934 and was a partner for many years in the Chicago firm of Baskin & Baskin with Jacob Baskin and Louis Baskin.

Corporate attorney Harry A. Fischer Jr. died Sept. 15 at age 78 of melanoma in his Northfield home. He was president of Daubert Industries, Burr Ridge.

After Navy service during World War II, Mr. Fischer was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1951 after only two years at the Northwestern University School of Law. He was a corporate and securities lawyer with Gardner, Carton & Douglas, Chicago, for several years.

After leaving the firm, he was a partner in the banking and investment firm now known as UBS.

Marvin Lawrence Goldberger of Glenview died in September at age 89. Admitted to the Illinois bar in 1940, he was a Chicago attorney for 55 years and a lobbyist who helped establish the first G.I. Bill to support education for war veterans.

An Army Air Corps major during World War II, Mr. Goldberger was a past president of AMVETS, the Jewish War Veterans Post and B'nai Brith.

Retired Chicago attorney and law professor Warren Heindl died Aug. 20 at age 82. A 1947 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he taught there for a year while earning a master of laws degree.

Mr. Heindl continued to teach while in private practice for 14 years, and he joined the Chicago-Kent faculty full-time in 1965, retiring in 1994. He was named Teacher of the Year several times, and in 1993 received the Dean's Prize for Excellence in Teaching.

Margaret Heindl, his wife who also was a Chicago-Kent graduate and legal writing teacher, died in May 2004.

Retired attorney Richard Fanning Heyl, formerly of Peoria and Joliet, died Sept. 5 at age 80 at St. Patrick's Residence in Naperville two years after suffering a stroke.

The son of the late Harry C. Heyl and nephew of Clarence Heyl, both of Peoria, Richard Heyl graduated in 1952 from the University of Notre Dame Law School after Navy service in the Pacific during World War II.

He was an assistant state's attorney and member of his father's firm before joining the Chicago Title Insurance Co. Real Estate Law Division in Peoria. He relocated to Joliet with Chicago Title and later was with First American Title Insurance Co. in Bolingbrook.

Chicago attorney Sabato John Insalata, who also was a radio personality and newspaper columnist, died July 18 at age 71. He was a 1958 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law.

An attorney for Greyhound Highway Tours and Greyhound Lines for many years, Mr. Insalata also taught at the DePaul University College of Law. He wrote a “Reminiscing” column for the Near West Gazette and was host of “Chicago Stories” on WJJG radio.

Chicago attorney Lucien Durso Levaccare died in September at age 93. A 1945 graduate of the Northwestern University School of Law who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1946, he was former vice president for real estate taxes and corporate counsel of Dominick's Finer Foods.

Retired federal prosecutor John Aug-ustus Looby Jr. died Aug. 21 at age 91 in Lake Forest Hospital. He was a resident of Highlands Assisted Living at Lake Forest Place.

A 1938 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, Mr. Looby was a Navy captain, judge advocate and gunnery officer during World War II. He retired from the Navy Reserve after 28 years and was given the rank of honorary admiral by the Illinois Naval Militia.

As an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago, Mr. Looby worked in criminal fraud and was chief of the Tax Division for six years.

Former East St. Louis attorney Robert Berry Mays Jr. died Aug. 29 at age 61 in St. Louis University Hospital of injuries suffered Aug. 12 in an accident while driving to work from his home in Aviston.

A 1969 graduate of the St. Louis University Law School, Mr. Mays had been a professional boxer while studying law. He was East St. Louis streets commissioner from 1970 to 1975 and city clerk from 1975 to 1979, and he served on the school board.

Retired Chicago attorney Arthur M. Oppenheimer died Aug. 19 at age 87 in Rancho Mirage, Calif. A 1942 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he served in the Army during World War II.

Downers Grove attorney Donald James Parker, a resident of Western Springs, died in September at age 74. A 1955 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law, he was a first lieutenant with the 5th Army Judge Advocate General in Chicago from 1956 to 1960.

A past chair of the ISBA Civil Practice and Procedure Section Council and former member of the Bench and Bar Section Council, Mr. Parker served on the Illinois Supreme Court Ad Hoc Committee for Revision of Discovery Practice Rules.

A founding member of St. John of the Cross Parish, he served on the church council for several years and chaired the building committee. A member of Pizazz, the church theatrical group, he performed in several productions.

Retired corporate attorney William Robert Rawson died Sept. 21 at age 80 in his Glen Ellyn home. A 1950 graduate of the New York University School of Law, he was a Navy lieutenant junior grade in the Pacific during World War II.

Mr. Rawson joined Thomas A. Edison Industries as assistant corporation counsel in New Jersey. After the firm merged with McGraw Electric in 1957, creating McGraw-Edison, he became general counsel and senior vice president. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1974.

Mr. Rawson retired in 1985, when Cooper Industries acquired the corporation. He moved from St. Charles to Savannah, Ga., and was a part-time legal consultant to Union-Camp Industries.

Retired Joliet attorney Robert A. Snyder died Sept. 15 at age 67 in his home. He was a 1971 graduate of The John Marshall Law School.

Mr. Snyder was a name partner in several firms, most recently Snyder, Sabuco, Beck & Hansen (now Sabuco, Beck, Hansen & Schrock).

Harry Spyrison of Lombard, a 1942 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law who was admitted to the Illinois bar but never registered to practice, died Sept. 12 at age 87 in Downers Grove.

An Army Air Corps captain during World War II, Mr. Spyrison was involved in managing the family business, Youthful Shoes, for more than 60 years. He served on two school boards and the Elmhurst Memorial Hospital board.

Minneapolis health care attorney Robert Frank Strauss, who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1975, died June 9. He was a partner in Mackall, Crounse & Moore.

Former Chicago attorney Darrell Stremler, who was chief executive officer of the DuPage Medical Group, died Sept. 10 at age 45 of cancer in his Oak Brook home. He was active in a prison ministry program organized by Koinonia House in Wheaton.

A 1986 graduate of the Columbia University Law School, Mr. Stremler received a master's degree in business administration in 1994 from the University of Chicago.

He was associated with Mayer, Brown & Platt, Baxter International and Caremark International before developing the physician-owned DuPage group in 1999.

Monica Y. Walton of Springfield, a 1997 graduate of the Southern Illinois University School of Law, died Sept. 5 at age 37 in Memorial Medical Center. She had been equal employment opportunity coordinator for the City of Peoria.

Return to October Bar News Table of Contents

Return to ISBA homepage