Robert Phillip Cahill, a Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, died peacefully surrounded by family and friends Dec. 4, 2011 at age 75.

Justice Cahill was born in 1936. He was educated at St. Louis University, Loyola University of Chicago and Loyola University of Law, earning his J.D. degree in 1966. He began his legal career as a statutory draftsman with the Legislative Reference Bureau in Springfield, then moved to the Illinois Senate where he served as legal counsel to the Education Committee and then Chief of Staff for the Illinois Senate. From 1973 to 1980, he was an Assistant State's Attorney in Cook County and chief of special litigation in that office. From 1974 to 1978 he served as an elected member of the Board of Education of District 65 in Evanston.

In 1980, he joined the law firm of Rock, Fusco, Reynolds & Henaghan, where he practiced law until his appointment as an Associate Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1983. In 1984 he received the highest approval rating of any sitting circuit court judge from the Chicago Bar Association lawyers' poll. He was found highly qualified for the Appellate Court by the Chicago Bar Association's Judicial Screening Committee in February 1992 and then elected to the court in the general election of November 1992 and retained for a second 10-year term in November 2002.

He served as a trained intervener as a member of the Lawyers' Assistance Program. In this way he helped many people turn their lives around. He received the 2010 Hon. John Powers Crowley Award for his years of service to the legal community through the Program. Colleagues and counsel who appeared before him remember him as the quietly brilliant jurist who saw quickly into the facts of a case and the dynamics beneath them. He wrote concise, clear, and just decisions. He did not allow his political views or disagreements to color his opinions or interfere with his commitment to fairly and consistently apply the law. He walked humbly and served with compassion. Friends knew him as a good man, thoughtful, well-read, with a great joie de vivre, and loving and committed to his family.

Justice Cahill is survived by his wife, sisters, daughters and grandchildren.