Glenn Seidenfeld was circuit judge, appellate justice

Retired 2nd District appellate justice Glenn Kenneth Seidenfeld of Winnetka, who once turned down an appointment to the Supreme Court, died Sept. 4 at age 94 in his home of pneumonia and congestive heart failure.

A 1938 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, Mr. Seidenfeld practiced in Waukegan until 1963 and was an assistant Illinois attorney general from 1957 to 1961. During World War II, he served in the Judge Advocate General’s Office.

Elected to the 19th Circuit Court in 1963, he was listed on the ballots of both parties in the primary election. Chief judge from 1964 to 1967, Mr. Seidenfeld was appointed to the Appellate Court in 1968.

A past president of the Illinois Circuit and Appellate Judges Association, he served on the Waukegan High School board from 1951 to 1956.

In 1984, Mr. Seidenfeld retired from the bench, believing that judges should step down at age 70. He joined Jenner & Block in an advisory capacity.

Survivors include a son, Glenn K. Seidenfeld Jr., an attorney with Incredible Technologies in Arlington Heights.

Arthur Abney

Retired attorney Arthur Eugene Abney of Springfield, past president of the National Association of State Aviation Officials, died Sept. 16 at age 89 in St. Joseph’s Home.

A founder of Southern Illinois University’s Flying Egyptians, based in the Marion Airport, Mr. Abney and the entire group joined the Navy Air Corps and served in the Pacific during World War II.

While studying at the Lincoln College of Law after the war, he worked for the Illinois Bonus Board, and he later served as assistant director of the Illinois Department of Aeronautics.

Mr. Abney was associated with American Airlines from 1962 until 1982, when he retired and began to teach aviation law at SIU. He was inducted into the Illinois Aviation Hall of Fame in 1990 and was named a Distinguished Alumnus by SIU in 2001.

He was the author of “Wings Over Illinois,” a tribute to the Wright brothers that was published in 2007 by SIU Press.

Survivors include a son, Woodstock attorney Robert H. Abney.

Mary Ellen Balaguer

West Dundee attorney Mary Ellen Balaguer died Sept. 16. She was a 1987 graduate of the Northern Illinois University College of Law.

Marvin Berz

Chicago attorney Marvin S. Berz died in September at age 85. A 1948 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he served in the Army Air Corps during World War II.

Formerly with Schwartz & Cooper, Mr. Berz also was general counsel at the Mercantile Financial Corp. before entering private practice.

F. Ronald Buoscio

Lansing attorney F. Ronald Buoscio, the son of former judge Felix Buoscio, died in September at age 80. He was a partner in Buoscio & Buoscio at one time with a brother, Harry R. Buoscio, now a retired associate judge.

A 1951 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, Ronald Buoscio served in the Army during World War II.

John Carey Jr.

Chicago attorney John Murphy Carey Jr. died Aug. 21 at age 56. A 1983 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, he was an assistant attorney general and assistant state’s attorney before entering private practice.

John Cook

Retired Chicago attorney John August Cook died Oct. 5 at age 87. A 1947 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he served in the military during World War II.

John Corrigan

Additional information has been received about John E. Corrigan Jr. of Kenilworth, whose death was reported in the September issue of the ISBA Bar News.

Mr. Corrigan died Aug. 29 at age 85 of pancreatic cancer in his home. A 1949 graduate of Harvard Law School, he served in the Army in Europe during World War II and received a Purple Heart.

With First National Bank of Chicago for 31 years, he was an attorney in the commercial banking division. He retired in 1980 as senior vice president and was a founder of Hedberg, Tobin, Flaherty & Whalen.

Mr. Corrigan taught banking courses at the University of Wisconsin for 12 years and was a member of the Winnetka and Kenilworth Library boards.

Richard Forward

Retired Chicago attorney Richard G. Forward died Sept. 5 at age 80 in Reston, Va. A 1955 graduate of the Columbia University Law School, he was a retired Navy commander. A longtime resident of Hinsdale, he was a former partner in Chapman and Cutler.

John Kepler

Retired corporate attorney John Z. Kepler of Schaumburg died Sept. 8 at age 80 of Parkinson’s disease and heart problems at ManorCare in Rolling Meadows.

A graduate of the George Washington University Law School who was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1956, Mr. Kepler was an Indiana prosecutor before entering private practice.

After studying international law at the London School of Economics, he became an international counsel to Merck Pharmaceutical and later, Motorola.

Mr. Kepler was a co-author of “Americans Abroad,” a guide for families who planned to move from the U.S., and “Windows to the World: Themes for Cross-Cultural Understanding.”

Richard King

Retired corporate attorney Richard Carroll King died Sept. 20 at age 75 of lung cancer in Adventist Hinsdale Hospital. A 1957 graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, he became a lieutenant in the Naval Justice School and was counsel to courts martial in Guam.

Relocating to Indiana in 1961, Mr. King was a partner in an Elkhart firm before being named deputy prosecutor in Elkhart County. He moved to Hinsdale in 1969 and was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1971.

Mr. King was division counsel for the consumer products division of Motorola, then with Quasar Co. and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. In 1983 he became senior attorney at Spiegel Inc. in Oak Brook.

In retirement, he taught business and family law at MacCormac College. He was a past president and trustee of the Hinsdale Public Library board.

Anna Langford

Former Chicago alderman and civil rights attorney Anna Riggs Langford died Sept. 17 at age 90 of lung cancer in her Englewood neighborhood home.

A 1956 honors graduate of The John Marshall Law School, she was an advocate for fair housing and other rights of the under-represented, often serving pro bono.

Ms. Langford was elected to the Chicago City Council in 1971, defeated in 1975 and re-elected in 1983 and 1987. She retired from her seat in 1991.

John Lannon

Retired government attorney John J. Lannon of Glen Ellyn died in October. A 1937 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law, he was a lieutenant in the Army Counter Intelligence Corps during World War II. He spent a year in New Mexico with the Manhattan Engineer Project, the atom bomb program.

Mr. Lannon was a trial attorney with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice before retiring in 1976.

Survivors include a daughter-in-law, Elizabeth A. Kaveny of Propes & Kaveny, Chicago.

Denise Lizen

Retired assistant Cook County state’s attorney Denise Lizen of Frankfort died Sept. 16 at age 55. She was a 1989 graduate of the Chicago-Kent College of Law.

Richard Martin

Retired Cicero attorney Richard C. Martin, who had relocated to his hometown of Iowa City, died Sept. 16 at age 87 in Naperville. An Army lieutenant during the Korean War, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1964.

Michael Martino

Retired Chicago attorney Michael J. Martino died Sept. 15 at age 81 in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., his retirement home since 1984. A 1952 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he served in the Army in the Pacific during World War II.

J. Michael Mathis

Retired Peoria attorney Joseph Michael Mathis of Peoria Heights died Sept. 8 at age 71. He was a 1959 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law.

An assistant Peoria County state’s attorney from 1960 to 1968, Mr. Mathis continued to represent the county in federal aid matters until 1976.

A pioneer in the legal needs of the mature client and member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, he wrote the column, Law and Longevity, in Senior News and Views for almost 20 years.

He was the author of “A Will Is Not Enough in Illinois” in 2005, wrote many articles about the subject, and produced a video series, Elder Law: Issues and Answers.

Mr. Mathis was a past winner of a Peoria Journal Star Readers Choice Award as favorite attorney and a finalist in an Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest in Key West, Fla. He served on the board of the Central Illinois Business Institute.

Survivors include three sons: Springfield attorneys Joseph Michael Mathis Jr. of the Illinois Court of Claims and Stephen John Mathis of the Illinois Industrial Commission, and Christopher Haley Mathis of Bogutz & Gordon, Tucson, Ariz.

J. Richard Meno

Carlinville attorney James Richard Meno died Aug. 8 at age 60 at St. John’s Hospital in Springfield. He was a partner in Denby, Meno, Bloomer & Denby, which also has offices in Benld and Staunton.

A 1973 graduate of the St. Louis University School of Law, Mr. Meno joined Denby & Dobbs. He also was Macoupin County public defender until 1975, when he became a partner in the firm.

He was Benld city attorney, president of the Benld Cemetery Association, a member of the Muni Band and president of the American Federation of Musicians local for 18 years.

John Nelligan

Retired 18th Circuit judge John Joseph Nelligan died Sept. 24 at age 80 in Denver, Colo. He was a 1953 graduate of the Loyola University School of Law after Army service.

Mr. Nelligan was with several Chicago and suburban law firms before opening a solo practice in Wheaton in 1969. He became an associate judge in 1975 and was elected to the circuit court in 1991. He was presiding judge of the Felony Division when he retired.

Recalled to serve in the 18th Circuit from September 2001 to February 2002, Mr. Nelligan also was recalled to the 16th Circuit on two occasions through March 2006.

M. Robert Ostrow

Lemont attorney Melvin Robert Ostrow, a former assistant Cook County state’s attorney, died recently at age 81. A 1954 graduate of the University of Chicago Law School, he served in the Navy during World War II.

Gerald Petacque

Chicago attorney Gerald M. Petacque, a partner in Petacque & Well, died Sept. 8 at age 78 of pneumonia in Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was being treated for lung cancer.

A 1955 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, he took up sculpture as a young attorney and displayed his work in local art fairs. He also completed several marathon races.

Dominic Salvati

Bloomington attorney Dominic Anthony Salvati died June 4 at age 32 of cancer in OSF St. Joseph’s Medical Center. He was an associate with Costigan & Wollrab.

A 2004 graduate of The John Marshall Law School, Mr. Salvati was an assistant McLean County state’s attorney before joining the law firm. He was former secretary of the McLean County Bar Association and member of its Young Lawyers Division.

He was active in the Big Brother Big Sister Program, Easter Seals and the Safe Harbor Homeless Shelter.

Samuel Schachtman

Skokie attorney Samuel Schachtman died in September at age 81. A 1950 graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law who served in World War II, he was a past president of the Evanston B’nai Brith.

Joseph Shekleton

Arlington Heights patent attorney Joseph Shekleton died in September at age 88. A 1964 graduate of the Case Western Reserve Law School, he was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1970.

Mr. Shekleton earned a doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Illinois in 1943 and was a patent chemist for companies in Pennsylvania and Ohio for 20 years before getting a law degree.

He was a patent lawyer for the Corn Products Corp. and Borg Warner in Chicago until he retired in 1990. He was a lifelong barbershop quartet singer and member of SPEBSQSA.

Survivors include a son, Gerald T. Shekleton of Welsh & Katz, Chicago.

Richard Speidel

Richard Eli Speidel of Chicago, a scholar and teacher of commercial law and arbitration, died Sept. 6 at age 75 of prostate cancer in his Michigan vacation home.

A 1957 graduate of the University of Cincinnati Law School who received a master of laws degree in 1958 at the Northwestern University School of Law, Mr. Speidel was a lieutenant for four years in the Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps.

He joined the faculty of the University of Virginia and was dean of the Boston University School of Law from 1977 to 1980. He returned to the Northwestern faculty and taught until 2003. In retirement, he taught at the University of San Diego School of Law.

Mr. Speidel was the author of a five-volume treatise on arbitration law that won a 1995 award for best new legal book from the American Association of Publishers.

He also was co-author of “Commercial Transactions: Sales and Leases of Goods” and “Studies in Contract Law,” and had visiting professorships in Vienna and Hawaii.

Raymond Stauber

Retired Wheaton attorney Raymond William Stauber died in September at age 87. He was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1947. Survivors include two attorney sons: Raymond W. Stauber Jr. of Wheaton and Mark J. Stauber of Winfield.

Henry Thullen

Retired Chicago attorney Henry Matthias Thullen of Lake Forest died Aug. 9 at age 92. A 1940 graduate of the Ohio State University Law School, he served in the Army in Europe during World War, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel.

Mr. Thullen joined Pope & Ballard in Chicago after the war. In 1952, he founded Vedder, Price, Kaufman & Kammholz with six other lawyers and was a partner until his retirement in 1984.

A past president of the Bannockburn School District, he served on the Deerfield and Bannockburn Plan Commissions for several years.

Thomas Wynn

Retired Cook County judge Thomas Joseph Wynn of Barrington died Sept. 3, four days after his 90th birthday. A 1942 graduate of the DePaul University College of Law, he served in the Navy during World War II.

Mr. Wynn practiced law in Chicago from 1946 to 1979 and was a partner in Wynn & Ryan when he became an associate judge. He retired in 1995 and was later recalled to the bench.

A past president of the DePaul Law Alumni Association, he served on the law school dean’s advisory board for several years and received a Distinguished Service Award.