Chief Justice Fitzgerald remembers Judge Suria

In the latest ISBA Bench and Bar Section newsletter, Illinois Supreme Court Chief Justice Thomas R. Fitzgerald shared the following remembrance of Cook County Circuit Court Judge Fred G. Suria, who died last July (read his obituary in the Daily Herald).

"Judge Suria was a gentleman’s scholar and a good and valued friend. Of his 44 years on the bench, almost all of them were spent in Criminal Court at the 26th and California courthouse. Fred loved 26th street, both the place and the people. He loved his fellow judges, the lawyers, the court employees, the jurors and even the defendants who were treated just as respectfully as the others.

"He was called 'Fair Fred,' a name he had earned by the way he did business and performed his duties. He treated everyone with dignity. As one former juror who experienced his courtroom wrote after his death: Judge Suria imparted a sense of faith in the judicial system, and was the ideal ambassador for the criminal court system in Chicago.

"Judge Suria was born in Philadelphia to an Irish mother. His father was an eastern-European immigrant who came to America as a cabin boy. The family moved to Chicago when Fred was eight. He graduated from Morgan Park High School, served in the Marine Corps and, after World War II, used the GI bill to earn degrees from the University of Illinois and Loyola University School of Law.

"He was first elected as a judge to the Village Court in Midlothian in 1962. It was the beginning of a long and rich judicial career. He will be missed by all who knew him. He was a man who made his part of the world a better place.

"Think what it would be like if we all made such a contribution."