• Edy Fielder Burton
  • Nancy Norton
  • Robinson Helen
  • Glynne Gervais
  • Terry Rice
  • George Manning
  • Ann Marohn
  • Jack Helbig (Provided)
  • Jack Swanson
  • Hannah Voigt
  • Bill Dooley
  • Coach Ken Uhlir (Courtesy of Trinity High School)
  • Mary Anne Brown
  • Nile Gossett
  • Bob Cullen
  • Wilmer Rutt
  • Betty Peaslee
  • Don O’Brien
  • Ed O’Brien
  • Bill Marshall
  • Tyra Manning
  • Gus Boudros
  • Bruce Samuels
  • Tony Kinert
  • Connie Rakitan
  • Gerri Keating
  • Gary Mancuso
  • Gene McCormack
  • Robert Follett
  • Patrick Hemingway
  • Bruce Sagan
  • Jim Dooley
  • Joan Ryan
  • Mickey Baer
  • Burt Andersen
  • Mel Noel Jr.
  • Jack Kernan

January

Edy Fielder Burton, 90, Oak Park Realtor, education advocate

Nancy Norton, Park District of Oak Park commissioner

Helen Robinson, co-founder of Robinson’s Ribs, First Baptist Church member

Glynne Gervais, 86, former Village Manager Association (VMA) president

Terry Rice, 75, owned the Foley-Rice Cadillac dealership on Madison Street

Fran Sullivan, 89, advocate for fair housing, women’s rights, good government, and reducing gun violence

George Manning, Austin preservationist who lived in a mansion on Midway Park and was always happy to give tours

Ann Marohn, 89, longtime docent and founding member of the Wright Home & Studio Foundation, now Wright Trust

Chuck Bassett, 70, architect, Plan Commission member

February

Jack Helbig, 66, Chicago Reader theater critic, high school English teacher, playwright (Feb. 5, p. 3)

Molly Philosophos, 60, Hephzibah development director, member of the board of directors

March

Jack Swanson, 96, former OPRF High School superintendent, interim District 90 superintendent, active community volunteer (March 5, p. 31)

Hannah Voigt, 87, piano teacher, church organist, gifted accompanist

Gail Hague, 88, Economy Shop volunteer for six decades, past president of Hephzibah Children’s Association

April

Betty Gehring, 96, violinist and music instructor who, with her husband gave up their retirement in Indiana to help her son raise their three adopted children from Russia after their mother died

Bill Dooley, 78, member of the Dooley Brothers band

Ken Uhlir, longtime Trinity High School volleyball coach

May

Mary Anne Brown, 80, dynamic director of Hephzibah Children’s Association for 40 years. She died on Mother’s Day Jordan Rifis, 79, known as the “lawyer for the underdog” 

Nile Gossett, 60, diversity ambassador and former director of Project Unity

June

Bob Cullen, 70, pediatrician who practiced in a wheelchair after a car accident in early adulthood, also a poet, whose daughter became a professional ballet dancer

Wilmer Rutt, co-founder of Oak Park’s 10,000 Villages store, physician, medical missionary

Betty Peaslee, 94, co-proprietor with her husband Don of Peaslee Hardware on Madison Street in Forest Park, and a community activist

Ed O’Brien, 62, avid birdwatcher, Oak Park librarian

Bill Marshall, 86, former Oak Park village trustee

July

Tyra Manning, 78, former District 90 superintendent and an author who wrote about the grief she carried for decades after her husband died in Vietnam

Gus Boudros, 53, former proprietor of Oak Park Food Mart on Oak Park Avenue, a storefront that remains empty years later

August

Bruce Samuels, 82, community organizer who helped develop the Head Start program and Sesame Street in the 1960s

Tony Kinert, 85, owned Olde Town West in Forest Park

Connie Rakitan, 74, led the Faith & Fellowship Ministry at St. Catherine-St. Lucy for those with mental illness

Gerri Keating, 81, former CEO of the Oak Park Board of Realtors

Gary Mancuso, 74, Oak Park Realtor, active in OPALGA, the Oak Park Area Gay and Lesbian Association

Gene McCormack, 85, teacher, coach and longtime Wright Home & Studio docent 

September

Marion Biagi, 94, co-founded SEOPCO, the Southeast Oak Park Community Organization, following the massive environmental remediation of Barrie Park. She lived across the street and remained a staunch defender of the neighborhood through the entire nightmare 

Robert Follett, 97, chairman of the Follett Publishing Company, which published college textbooks, son of Dwight and Millie Follett, who co-founded the VMA

Patrick Hemingway, 97, the last of Ernie’s three sons, who remained very active in protecting the Hemingway estate and literary legacy

October

Bruce Sagan, 96, newspaper publisher, who launched The World, a precursor to Wednesday Journal (Oct. 1, p. 10)

Jim Dooley, 76, founder of the Dooley Brothers band and brother of Bill Dooley, who died in April

November

Joan Ryan, 92, Wright docent and former director of the Infant Welfare Clinic

December

Mickey Baer, 82, owner of the Matter of Style Salon on Marion Street

Burt Andersen, 93, physician/musician, a soaring tenor who specialized in singing the songs of Stephen Sondheim and former head of Infectious Diseases at the University of Illinois Medical Center 

Mel Noel Jr., 81, dedicated to justice and the arts, who argued cases before the Supreme Court

Jack Kernan, 100, whose first marriage lasted 65 years. His second marriage lasted only six, but it started when he was 94

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