John Cottrill FEIRICH

1933 - 2018

FEIRICH,
John Cottrill
(Age 85)

John C. "Jack" Feirich, 85 years of age, of Spokane, WA and formerly of Sandpoint, ID; Scottsdale, AZ; Naples, FL; and Carbondale, IL passed away January 14, 2018 after a year-long battle with cancer. He was born January 2, 1933 in Chicago, IL, the son of John K. and Mary M. Feirich.
He is survived by his wife, C. Kay Feirich; two children, John Charles Feirich of Oceanside, CA and Elizabeth Feirich Nebot of Sausalito, CA; three grandchildren; four great-grandchildren all of Vista, CA; sister, Gretchen Lewellyn of Scottsdale, AZ; stepson, Jeffrey (Alisa) Brummer of Fairview, OR; and two step-grandchildren.
John attended Northwestern University, The College of Law at the University of Illinois and thereafter engaged the private practice of law in Carbondale, IL with his father and grandfather. He continued practicing law in Carbondale until he retired in 1988. He then moved to Naples, FL to pursue retirement and in particular, his love of sailing where he met and married his wife, Kay. After many years, they moved to the Pacific Northwest; first to Idaho and then to Washington, where they became avid golfers. While there, John also spent five years attempting to obtain authority from the State of Washington to rebuild David Thompson's Historic Trading Post.
During his legal career, he gave freely of his time for the betterment of the legal profession and for the benefit of those members of the public who needed lawyers but could not afford them. He co-founded the Lawyer's Trust Fund of Illinois that has raised millions of dollars to provide legal services for those needy persons. He was a member of various legal organizations in which he rose to high levels. This included The Illinois State Bar Association of which he became the President, The American Bar Association in which he became Chairman of the General Practice Section and The American College of Trial Lawyers. He spent years working as a co-author of "The Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions", a publication of which he was extremely proud. He was the founder and first president of Air Illinois, a third level airline providing commuter and connecting airline services from Carbondale to St. Louis, Springfield and Chicago.
A memorial service will be held on Saturday, February 17th at 1pm at Manito Presbyterian Church, 401 E. 30th Ave., Spokane, WA.
"He was my best friend and loving husband and will be greatly missed" - Kay Feirich