The late Harold "Hank" Hannah

Professor Hannah passed away at age 90 on Nov. 20, 2001. There's a nice obit here.

Speaking of Michael Baird . . .

(as I was here), who else am I leaving out, among those who started out with us back in August of 1973?

Liz Kelly, of course. I heard recently, I believe from Eugenia Hunter, that Liz had retired from her position at the University of Pennsylvania.


I remember meeting one guy that first week that I took an immediate liking to. Before I had even learned his name, he was gone. It didn't take him long to realize that law school was not for him. And at least one of our original classmates, Peter Popit, left and then came back. Peter practices law in Benton, Illinois, with Troutt Alexander Popit & Warner PC.

And how about some of our teachers? Probably because I had been in Nigeria in the Peace Corps, I've often wondered how Andrew Onejeme has coped with all the continuing turmoil in Nigeria over all these years.

I saw Don Garner not long ago, at the federal courthouse in Benton.

Don told me he's married to a Bulgarian national (going through the naturalization process), and on retirement they're moving to New Zealand. Little Donnie, who was a backgammon prodigy when we were in law school, is now an immigration lawyer in Chicago.

Unfortunately I missed Ted Kionka's retirement shindig. Does anybody have a report on that for the rest of us? Ted has a recent book:

LAW KF 1250 .Z9 K527 2002 2002
Kionka, Edward J., 1939-
Torts / by Edward J. Kionka.
St. Paul, MN : West Group, c2002.
xlii, 338 p. ; 26 cm.
Includes index.

Oshel responds with diagnosis, suggests drugs:

"David: It's apparent from the times shown on your posts that you are not sleeping well. There are probably drugs for that kind of problem. I have however enjoyed the information and the misinformation."

And, finishing our first trip through the alphabet, Denise Ambrose.

She was Denise Paul in law school. Denise works for the State's Attorneys' Appellate Prosecutor's office in Springfield, and has been involved in some newsworthy cases.

By the way, Googling Denise Ambrose leads you directly to a site which tells you how compatible Denise Richards and Ambrose Bierce would have been. (I'm 91% compatible with Bob Dylan, only 33% with Fidel Castro: go figure.) Check it out.

David L. Atchison is President of Ponder & Co.,

financial advisers and investment managers. According to the corporate website:

"Mr. Atchison has over 21 years of experience as a financial advisor and investment banker to the healthcare industry. His capital finance experience includes over 100 separate hospital and healthcare system financings aggregating over $3 billion. He has also provided advisory and transaction management services for the sale, acquisition or merger of over 50 hospitals, nursing homes, managed care companies and physician practices with a market value in excess of $750 million.

"Mr. Atchison has developed several innovative financial services for healthcare clients, including merger and acquisition advisory services, a capital allocation model for integrated healthcare systems, and an investment management program."

Atch, if you get a minute could you straighten out this senior citizens' prescription drug thing?

Ken Balsters is village attorney

for the Village of Bethalto, pop. 9454 as of 2000.

Down here in Egypt we call villages that size towns, or even cities, if we're being highfalutin'.

Brad Barkau

. . . has a law office in Nashville, Illinois, the ancestral home of Justice Harry Blackmun of the U.S. Supreme Court and Associate Judge Kimberly Dahlen of the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois.

But it was Brad's role as a bank director that thrust him into the business news, in connection with a bank shareholder disagreement at Jefferson Savings, which was ultimately acquired by Union Planters.

Former Senator David Barkhausen of Lake Bluff

. . . has a nice web page for his law practice, with useful links related to the areas of the law he concentrates on: residential real estate and estate planning.

I bet he can't do George W. Bush the way he could do Everett McKinley Dirksen. Dave, would you say "drenched in contumely" one more time? In fact, if you can figure out how audblog works, we could post some Dirksen on this site. Here's an example.

Jim Binninger is village attorney . . .

. . . for Hanover Park, Illinois, a "village" of 35,000 souls.

Among other extracurricular activities, Jim has served as as keynote speaker to a police chiefs' organization on the topic of discriminatory profiling.

John Bowman

. . . practices law in Chicago, where he concentrates on worker's compensation.

I expect that John is working on a chapter in the unauthorized John Brewster biography (see below).

Our man at the top: John Brewster, Trustee

Here's John's official bio.



The unauthorized biography will have to wait. Suffice it to say that the Richard Pryor-John Candy movie hardly scratched the surface.

Tom Britton's still at the law school.

He retired from administration in early 2001 and now devotes his energies to teaching, according to his law school faculty page.



Tom has been heavily involved in bargaining for the SIU administration with the faculty union, as reflected in the linked article.

Tom and his siblings have endowed a scholarship at SIU in honor of their parents.

Talk about doing the Lord's work

Larry Broeking has been the felony public defender in Williamson County for an unconscionably long time. You almost have to be there to appreciate what a thankless grind jobs like Larry's are, and how few and far between are the professional rewards.

He is one of the authors of a booklet called "You're Arrested...?" which was published by the Family and Corrections Network, and is available on-line here. As they say in the introduction:

"When someone you love is arrested, the whole family is affected. This book is written to help you through the 'system' of the legal process and, if necessary, through the transition to prison visiting."

Oops! Wrong Campbell Brown

Cam, what are you up to? And don't try to tell me you're the player-coach for the Baton Rouge Kingfish.

I was sorry to learn of Debbie Buchman's difficulties.

It appears from the linked order from the Illinois Department of Human Rights that Debbie has multiple sclerosis, and now uses a wheelchair.

Here's the history of Bruce Burkey's law firm

in Effingham, and here's Bruce:

Max D. Cartwright: First Things First

The first thing Google tells you about Max is that he and Karen were married in Moline on December 29, 1973, after our first semester of law school. They are still in their native Quad City area, Jacob and Neal now raised. Last I heard, Max was handling juvenile cases for the Rock Island County state's attorney.

Art Cernosia appears to be quite the expert . . .

. . . on educational disabilities and the law, speaking at such seminars as this recent one in Yakima.

Art is on the board of contributing editors of EDLAW Briefing Papers, a monthly newsletter analyzing legal developments affecting special education.

He has been an adjunct assistant professor of education since 1989 at the University of Vermont, where the catalog claims he received his J.D. in 1976 from Northern Illinois University. What's up with that, Art?

Up in the same neck of the woods as Buzz is Greg Cheney.

Gore Vidal's Dreaming War: Blood for Oil and the Cheney-Bush Junta is not about our classmate, but a homonymic relative from Wyoming.

For some years, Greg sponsored a labor law award at the alma mater.

Buzz Chostner

Several years ago, out of the blue, Buzz sent me a copy of something in my handwriting, dating from law school, which I had copied from one of the works of the 19th century anarchist philosopher Proudhon. It must have been in connection with research for Professor Abraham's seminar, best I can figure. It's the famous passage from What Is Property? to the effect that (this is a paraphrase):

"If I say to you that slavery is murder, you know immediately what I mean. Why is it you pretend not to understand when I say that property is theft?"

Last I heard, Buzz was still practicing law in Rockford, not having succumbed to anarchist blandishments. It appears he's doing petitioner's work in comp cases.

Don Collins

. . . cigarmaker;

. . . racer;

. . . pitcher;

. . . popular lecturer;

. . . builder;

and, of course, attorney in Belleville, Illinois.

Count John?

A google search on John Czapski leads to information that a certain Count Emeryk August Hutten-Czapski (1897-1979) was the Grand Chancellor of the Knights of St. John in post-war Poland.

Am I on to something here, John?

Judge Ron Eckiss in the news:

MARION -- A Marion woman and her 15-year-old daughter have been sentenced to serve 30 days in jail under the Williamson County State's Attorney's Abolish Chronic Truancy (ACT) Now program.

Kathy Stricklin was sentenced to serve her sentence in the Williamson County jail for willfully allowing her daughter to be chronically truant during the 2002-2003 school year.

Judge Ronald Eckiss also sentenced the daughter to serve 30 days in a juvenile detention center for failure to attend school as required by Court order.

According to Marion School District records, the 15-year-old student had 75 days of unexcused absences during that school year.

"Judge Eckiss is very pro-school attendance," said Williamson County State's Attorney Charles R. Garnati. "Without the Judge's support, the ACT Now program would not be as effective as it has been."

(By the way, Ron is the author of a 1995 survey of the Illinois law of evidence, which may be found at 19 S. ILL. U. L.J. 801-818.)

Terry Finley

What with being the tour manager in Australia for the Little River Band, art work, and raising thoroughbreds, it's a wonder Terry has time to attend to his duties at the bank in Moline.

Ralph Friederich, Department of Justice

. . . is listed in the Leadership Library on the Internet [TM].

Our number one student (wasn't he?) has been a fixture in the United States Attorney's office in the Southern District of Illinois since shortly after he clerked for Judge Foreman. Ah, the tales he could tell, I imagine....

Wild Bill Gallagher

Could he be the author of Sennacherib's Campaign to Judah, "a thoroughly revised version of his dissertation written at the University of Vienna under the direction of the Assyriologist Hermann Hunger and the Old Testament scholar Georg Sauer"?

One reviewer said:

"The meticulous attention given to textual criticism, translation problems, historiographical questions and its cautiously applied literary criticism make it a model of the contextual method in Ancient Near Eastern and Biblical Studies."

That does sound like Bill, doesn't it?

Upcoming Dan Gaumer Lunch N Learn

According to this announcement, Dan Gaumer will give the attorney's perspective on "functional capacity evaluations" (Nancyann Leeder could probably explain to us what those are) at a November 20 meeting in Urbana sponsored by Corvel.

He's billed as follows:

"Daniel L. Gaumer is a partner in the Decatur, Illinois law
firm of Winters, Featherstun, Gaumer, Postlewait, Stocks
& Flynn, a general practice firm that has a large
concentration of its practice in all types of insurance
defense litigation including the defense of worker’s
compensation claims. He has handled thousands of
worker’s compensation claims and has tried hundreds
more to verdict since 1978. He appears regularly at
arbitration dockets throughout Central Illinois. Mr.
Gaumer and his firm both have an A rating in
Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Gaumer is listed on the
Leading Lawyers Network at www.LeadingLawyers.
com. His experience includes appeals of compensation
claims to all levels including the Illinois Supreme Court."

Featherstun. Wasn't he on Rumpole of the Bailey?

John Hauser . . .

. . . sells old comics. But that's not our classmate, who is presumably still a bank veep in Joplin.

"Eugenia Hunter: Still trying to change the world"

That's the title of a lengthy piece about our redoubtable classmate in the ISBA Bar News last year. It's well worth reading in its entirety, but here's a brief excerpt:

Hunter recently combined her desire to help and her love of travel with three weeks of volunteer work at the Lawyers Collective, a Women's Rights Initiative in New Delhi that is supported by the Ford Foundation. It has three main functions: legal aid, research and documentation, and advocacy.

"I decided if there was ever a time to be an international volunteer to promote cross-cultural understanding, this was the time and place to do it," Hunter said.

Is this our Mike Jenkins?

The author of the "How-to-Start-a-Business" series?

At least it's not inconsistent with his occupational experience. According to an article in the newletter of the San Diego Community and Economic Development Department earlier this year, "Mike Jenkins is Retiring":

"For more than 17 years, Michael Jenkins has worked diligently to improve San Diego's economy and quality of life while working in the Community and Economic Development Department.

"Mike has decided to retire from C&ED, so the Department bade him farewell this month. Although Mike is looking forward to more free time to enjoy such passions as bike riding, camping and hiking, he won't be able to give up work completely. In fact, he has already made arrangements to work in affiliation with the Law Offices of Marie Burke-Lia. His hope is to continue to work in the community and economic development arena by assisting small businesses and nonprofit agencies put development deals together.

"Mike Jenkins' genuine enthusiasm for and commitment to our Department's mission to improve the quality of life and ensure a healthy economy for all San Diegans is what has made Mike a leader in his field. We wish him all the best in his future endeavors and will continue our work according to the example he set."

Hello, Barb Jones.

What is it you do for the Illinois Board of Higher Education?

I got to know Barb's brother, The Honorable Thomas Jones, when I was assigned for a time to hear cases in Jackson County. A prince of a fellow. (And, I had forgotten until just now, schoolmate and neighbor of our one-time classmate Mike Baird. One thing I remember about Baird is that he liked to go directly to the source, Blackstone's Commentaries, to teach himself the law. Now he could find Blackstone on-line--pretty amazing, this technology.)

The Quiet One

Terry Kaid is the long-time state's attorney of Wabash County, Mt. Carmel, Illinois.

“Keller & Keller? Let’s settle this one.”

By all accounts, our Jim Keller, SIU Law '76 or thereabouts, is in practice in Marathon, Florida.

Still, this opinion out of Indiana about those lawyer ads starring Robert Vaughn is kind of interesting. In a nutshell:

"By authorizing advertisements for their law firm that suggested insurance companies would settle claims merely because their firm represented the claimants, the respondents violated the Rules of Professional Conduct for Attorneys at Law."

The law school has lost track of Dave Lacy.

Anybody know where he is?

There's a fellow by the same name, David L. Lacy, listed as a member of the Sky Soldiers. Does anybody remember Dave talking about serving in the 173d Airborne? They were the first American Army Unit deployed to the War Zone in Vietnam 36 years ago (and are now, deja vu, in Iraq).

Another of the judges our class is famous for, Bob LeChien,

sits in St. Clair County (Belleville), hearing cases like this, and this.

Hizzoner sometimes finds requests of lawyers "a little bit amazing." I know the feeling.

Nancyann Leeder

is the Nevada Attorney for Injured Workers.

And, what sounds much more fun, is also the dean of the Pacific Southwest Institute for Religious Liberals, which runs a camp for grownups in the San Bernardino National Forest.

My old moot court partner Lenzini is nowadays . . .

"widely regarded as the State's leading practitioner in Public Library Law."



In case you didn't know, Phil served in Vietnam before law school, and was awarded two Bronze Stars, the Purple Heart, and the Air Combat Medal.

The Honorable Donald Lowery

. . . also a decorated Vietnam vet. . . is the presiding judge of Pope County, here in the First Judicial Circuit of Illinois. His office is in Golconda, but he is routinely assigned to hear cases in Saline County (where he was a public defender not long after we graduated).

I thought I was on to something when Google led me to Don's name on the "2003 Approved Judges' List," but it turned out to have something to with the Miss Georgia contest, and the picture is definitely not our classmate.

Confused and frustrated by HIPAA?

It looks like the Class of 76's own Lenny Lucey's the man who can explain it to us.

Linda MacLachlan has gone missing, too.

I don't think this is her; for one thing, the spelling is a little different.

Anybody have any leads?

I don't think the columnist for the Toronto Sun

is the same Eric Margolis who was the president of our Ethics Council in law school, although you couldn't really be sure from the picture.

Eric, is that you?

Of course Russ Meyer's body of work

as a filmmaker was largely behind him when he turned to the law ("I've been around the world and seen everybody twice," he always said), but what's he been doing lately?

Now available is his long-awaited autobiography, A Clean Breast. "After a decade of ceaseless toil, RUSS MEYER has unleashed a pictorial account of his life and mind in this three-volume Magnum Opus. Over 2500 photos, personally selected by the artist himself from his vast archive."

(Funny, that picture doesn't really look like Russ. Oh well, we've all changed.)

How did Gary Miller manage . . .

. . . to fit in the 1975 World Putting Championship right in the middle of law school? (And he's so modest, he never mentioned it.)

What ever happened to nice guy Jim Morrison?

Col. Orval Nangle drew some high profile duty a while back . . .

. . . in connection with the U.S. Marine aviators who flew into the Italian ski lift.

"Lt. Gen. Peter Pace, commander of the U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Atlantic, Saturday appointed Col. Orval E. Nangle, a Marine Corps judge advocate, as the investigating officer for a new Article 32 hearing to review evidence connected to the new charges.

"An Article 32 hearing has a purpose similar to the grand jury in civilian law. After reviewing the evidence, Nangle will make a recommendation to Pace, who will decide whether to order courts-martial for the two men."

Orval's fellow native of West Frankfort, Judge Bruce D. Stewart, advises that he heard recently that Orval had retired from the military as a brigadier general.

Al Oehlert

is on the 2003-04 ISBA education law section council.

Don't you think Al had (and presumably still has) the ideal temperament for an administrative law judge?

Mary Lou, I apologize. . .

. . . for the erroneous report. Did you see the white light or anything?

Oshel, I know you're reading this, send us a message.

Gayl Simonds Alexander, n/k/a Gayl Pyatt

and her husband made a large gift to the U of I last year.

On a more mundane level, Gayl has been much in the news of late in her capacity as city attorney for the town of Pinckneyville. Something to do with the mayor and a strip club, wasn't it Gayl?

Is there any doubt who'd have won the best dressed award . . .

. . . if we'd had one: remember how beautifully Art Redgrave dressed (in contrast to most of the rest of us)?

According to the South Palm Beach Bar Association, Art's in Boca Raton, practicing in the areas of estate planning and estate and trust administration.

Shari Rhode is now out litigating on her own . . .

. . . well, with a partner, but in private practice, not just for SIU. Here's a recent story from the Southern Illinoisan about a case Shari's involved in arising out of Cairo--Huck Finn Cairo, not Moses Cairo.

Woo-Woo's Tavern (Doc's in our day)

. . . has had John Ryan and others in the neighborhood up in arms about the noise, according to a series of recent articles in the Southern Illinoisan. It was first announced that it had been acquired by a religious organization to house minority-based community programs, but then that turned out not to be true.

I can't find the articles on line. Maybe John could fill us in on the details.

Tom&EllenSchanzle-Haskins are still inseparable, one assumes.

Here's Tom


According to this article, Ellen's now at IDOT.

Here's the judgment of the Hon. Wm. G. Schwartz

on a 1999 Sea Princess Cruise to Alaska.

And here's Bill's 1999 survey of Juvenile law.

Gary Sibley left the practice of law . . .

. . . and went into aerial photography, at which he has been very successful. Check out these beautiful samples of his work, using "helicopters and fixed wing aircraft and the finest photographic equipment gyro-stabilized to obtain aerial photography of optimum color and detail."

Gosh, there are lots of Gary L. Smiths!

This "social network diagram" suggests that Gary is linked to lots of people in cloak and dagger work, but maybe it's not our Gary who practices law in Springfield.

Scott Spiller was quoted last year . . .

in a Milwaukee business journal article about something called the Northeast Wisconsin Educational Resource Alliance (NEW ERA):

"Businesses like Alliance Laundry Systems, which makes Ajax, SpeedQueen and UniMac products, have offered preliminary support for the NEW ERA initiative. Scott Spiller, vice president of law and human resources at Alliance Laundry, said support could translate into the dollars Wells depends on if final plans for NEW ERA are beneficial to three tiers: the state, students and industry.

"'The plan is market-based, which means it will meet our needs,' Spiller said. 'That's a smart way to do it and it's a well-conceived initiative.'"

Working my way up the alphabet

I decided last night to post something about everybody in the class list, and I worked my way backwards up the alphabet from Rick Witham to Bruce Stewart. More to come--and if you'd prefer to write your own entry, in self-defense, get it to me here.

Lou and Bruce Stewart

" . . . are dedicated to creating meaningful solutions for their clients. Their combined backgrounds of Feng Shui, NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) Biofeedback, Interior Design, T’ai Chi and Aikido, weave a rich foundation of skills which they share in their work. They offer consultations, lead workshops & guide retreats specializing in cultivating a greater understanding of how to live life more creatively and consciously. They live in the New Orleans, Louisiana area."

Meanwhile, our classmate Bruce is the presiding judge in Saline County, and lives in Harrisburg with his wife Marleigh (I married them many years ago). They have two daughters, and also do some weaving.

Here's Dave Stjern

I saw Al Stumpf at a high school football game in Waterloo a few years ago.

According to this press release, he had to fight off a claim against him all the way to the Supreme Court (where his adversaries' "frivolous claims" met their Waterloo).

Robert J. Swift, Jr.

. . . authored the chapter on Modification, Revocation, and Termination of Trusts in the MoBarCLE book on Trusts, Powers of Attorney, Custodianships, and Nonprobate Matters.

What's Chris Tabing up to, I wonder?

Glenn Tetzlaff, pre-J.D.

None of our classmates has been accused of sexual misconduct with a mare . . .

. . . to my knowledge, but at least one of us has been appointed to defend such an alleged zoophile.

You'll want to read the whole article, but here's an excerpt:

"McAfee appeared Wednesday in Greene County Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing, which was continued until 10 a.m. Aug. 18 to allow his newly court-appointed attorney, Charles Theivagt, time to prepare. The first two court-appointed attorneys cited conflicts of interest in representing the defendant."

Charlie, was that because they knew the mares personally?

What ever happened to Steve Thomas?

That's the big question among This Old House aficionados.

(I think our Steve is still in Evansville.)

Not exactly hot off the presses

But Kathleen Vaught authored an article entitled "Protecting a Co-Debtor in a Chapter 13 Consumer Bankruptcy," back in 1994. I can remember her telling me, some 20 years earlier, that I needed to get my s___ together--advice that I'm still trying to follow. Thanks, Kathy.

Last I heard John Weil was in Yuma

But he's apparently written a well-received guidebook to Berkeley and Oakland.

Our classmate Circuit Judge Jim Wexstten was highly praised

by lawyers who recovered the largest verdict in Jefferson County history.

As far as I know, our Darrell Williamson . . .

is still state's attorney in Randolph County, so this probably isn't him up in Calgary.

I don't think this is our David A. Wilson . . .

who wrote Ireland, a Bicycle, and a Tin Whistle, but he could have.

Is this you, Rick?

Halloween 1975

Phil Lenzini (the clown below) reminded me of the party where this picture was taken. Mona was just pregnant with Jesse, who's 27 now.



You don't think this could be the source of the Dave Nelson terrorist watch, do you?