George Taylor Bogert

1920 - 2019

George T. Bogert- lawyer and author of legal books, political and civic activist, and supporter of the arts, died on May 13th at his home in Bridgman, MI, at age 98. Bogert became a partner in 1966 at Mayer, Brown and worked there until his retirement in 1988. He was a graduate of Cornell University and Harvard Law School. His specialty was estate planning, and he was an author of a multi-volume work, Trusts and Trustees, that his father, George G. Bogert, had first written in 1935. As a young lawyer, Bogert was active in political reform groups, including the Independent Voters of Illinois and Better Government Association. He was president of Committee for a Greater Chicago in 1961-62, and co-chaired the Committee for Legislative Reform in 1974. He was co-chair of "Volunteers for Daley" in 1967, urging the re-election of Mayor Richard J. Daley, but soured on the mayor when, as co-chair of the Illinois Committee for (Eugene) McCarthy, he was infuriated by Daley's heavy-handed response to protestors during the 1968 Democratic convention. Bogert became a fervent backer of anti-Daley alderman William Singer, helping Singer upset the machine candidate to become an alderman in 1969, and later served as vice chair of Singer's unsuccessful 1975 Mayoral campaign. Bogert was also active in civic and cultural groups, serving on boards at the Newberry Library and Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. A devotee of chamber music, he was a founder of Music of the Baroque in 1976 and the Rembrandt Chamber Players in 1990. Bogert was an avid gardener, a talented tennis player, and a devoted smoker of cigars- pastimes he often indulged at his beloved summer home in Lakeside, Michigan. It was in Lakeside in 1950 that he married the former Adelyn Russell, who died in 1993. Bogert is survived by three children- Nicholas (Sally), Amy (Robert Baldwin), and Carroll- and four grandchildren. He married the former Adelyn Russell, who died in 1993, in Lakeside. Bogert is survived by three children- Nicholas (Sally), Amy (Robert Baldwin), and Carroll; four grandchildren; and his former second wife, Rosamary Everard. Plans for a memorial service are still being finalized. Arrangements by Cremation Society of Illinois, 773-281-5058 or www.cremation-society.com.