Joseph Schneider

Judge Joseph Schneider, 87 years old, died peacefully May 18, 2009 in Sarasota. Survivors include his wife of 50 years, Florette; son Charles, daughter Cynthia and stepson Barry Maness; six grandsons; two great- grandchildren; and his sister, Milly Cohn. Born in St. Louis, he was a World War II veteran who was inspired by Gandhi to become a social worker, and then a lawyer and judge. A giant in the legal community, he was a judge for over 28 years and was the Presiding Judge of the County Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County for 13 years. Judge Schneider touched thousands of lives through his progressive and compassionate approach, especially in the areas of mental health, adoption, and election law. He chaired the Governor's Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois from 1973-1978, was on the Advisory Board of Voices for Illinois Children, received an honorary doctorate of psychology from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology and Loyola University's Seidenburg Award for Distinguished Social Work in 1987. Even after retirement, he continued to work on social justice issues. Judge Schneider was the court-appointed monitor in a case brought by the ACLU on behalf of all of the children in the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services' (DCFS) custody for the first several years under a consent decree. His hard work and dogged pursuit of justice helped to bring about the system changes that resulted in more than 35,000 foster children being adopted into safe, stable homes, substantial improvements in preventing the re-abuse and re-neglect of children in families investigated by DCFS, and other profound reforms. He also served a critical role as the monitor in a ground-breaking class action lawsuit involving all of the Chicago Public School's students in need of special education services. He was an inspiration to his family, friends and colleagues.