Obituaries

Lyn (Carter) Cima, 75, formerly of Gurnee, died in Greenville, Maine on Oct.20.

After her husband was killed in a car accident in 1971, she obtained a law degree at John Marshall Law School and raised their six children as a single mom. She was an active member of the Lake Forest Friends (Quakers) Meeting.

Lyn, the daughter of John and Mary Jane Carter was born in Camden, New Jersey and attended the University of Chicago at age 16, where she met her husband, Augustin Cima. They married in 1955.

She vehemently opposed the war in Vietnam War. She marched, refused to pay war taxes, boycotted Hostess and edited the newsletter for the North Shore branch of the WILPF. She was a Draft Counselor during those turbulent years, and was arrested drawing attention to the Army's illegal surveillance of anti-war citizens. (Charges were dropped.)

She joined the Lake Forest Friends Meeting and convened its Peace and Social Concerns Committee. Lyn was among the early organizers of PADS, Lake County's still-active community effort to feed and shelter the homeless. Until recently, she taught literacy to adult students and was honored when her student won Illinois' Spotlight Award for Literacy achievement.

George Michael Shur, 70, of DeKalb, IL, died Sunday, Nov. 25 in Chicago. Born in 1942 in Portland, ME, to Barnett and Clarice (Geller) Shur, George spent his childhood in Portland and attended Colby College, then Boston University School of Law.

He returned to Portland and joined the law firm of Bernstein, Shur, Sawyer, and Nelson, where he later became partner. In 1970, he met Martha West. From their first date on Valentine's Day she remained the love of his life, and they were blessed to celebrate their 42nd anniversary November 14.

ISBA Laureate Mary Lee Leahy passed away Wednesday in Chicago. She was 72. Leahy was best known for winning the U.S. Supreme Court case Rutan v. Republican Party of Illinois – which banned most political hiring. She passed away in her Chicago condominum following a battle with pancreatic cancer.

Here is the bio from her 2001 Laureate induction: Two years after she graduated from law school in 1966, Mary Lee Leahy was principal attorney in the first of several landmark cases she has won in her distinguished career.

Pickering versus Board of Education, argued in the U.S. Supreme Court, established the right of public employees to publicly criticize their employers.

Perhaps her most familiar case – Rutan – was a class action decided in 1990 by the U.S. Supreme Court. It established the right of public employees to support or not to support a political party or candidate for public office without being denied promotion, transfer, recall from lay-off and employment due to a political patronage system. As the saying goes, "this changed everything."

Wayne R. Luepker, 63, of Oak Park died of heart failure on July 1, 2012. Born in 1949 in Chicago, he graduated from Grinnell College in 1971 and from the University of Chicago Law School (JD) in 1979. In 1980, he joined Mayer Brown in the Employee and Benefits Group and was named a partner in 1986. While there, he actively mentored many associates, sharing his knowledge readily and selflessly throughout his career.

He was appreciated by his colleagues and clients for his thoughtfulness, generosity and intelligence. His expertise was recognized by the American Bar Association, for which he chaired the Executive Compensation Subcommittee (Section of Taxation Employee Benefits Committee) from 1999 to 2009. He was also a member of the American College of Employee Benefits Counsel, was recognized by Chambers as one of the top lawyers in his field, and authored a number of professional publications.

In his personal life, he served as a member of the Board of Advisors for Catholic Charities, an organization whose mission to provide compassionate services to those in need expressed his own values.

Wayne Luepker is survived by his wife, Doreen Berger; his children, Daniel and Sarah; his brother, Russell; and his nephews, Ian and Carl. His family will remember him as a gentle man of great intelligence and grace, who was a gracious and generous friend and a loving partner and father.