Lawrence X. Pusateri

Justice Lawrence X. Pusateri, May 25, 1931 to Nov. 24, 2005. Lawrence X. Pusateri, former Illinois Appellate Court Judge, died over the Thanksgiving Holiday from complications from colon cancer. A private Mass was held at St. John Cantius Church in Chicago, followed by his burial at Queen of Heaven Mausoleum in Hillside. The family requests that donations be made in his name to the American Cancer Society. Mr. Pusateri's professional achievements include serving all three branches of government. He was appointed Justice of the Illinois Appellate Court (1977-1978) by the Illinois Supreme Court, where he authored a number of significant opinions. Then Governor of Illinois Richard Ogilvie appointed Mr. Pusateri to four concurrent positions, Chairman of the Illinois Pardon and Parole Board, Chairman of the Illinois Crime Investigating Commission, Chairman of the Illinois Conference on Diagnosis and Evaluation of Criminal Defendants, and Chief Legal Counsel of the Illinois Department of Corrections. Mr. Pusateri served two terms in the Illinois General Assembly, where he received multiple Best Legislator Awards. He served as Executive Director of the Illinois Judicial Inquiry Board. Respected by members of both political parties, Mr. Pusateri was nominated as the Republican candidate for the Illinois Supreme Court in 1976, and former Democrat U.S. Senators Paul Simon and Carol Mosley-Braun appointed him to a candidate screening committee for Judges of the U.S. District Court and U.S. Marshall. Mr. Pusateri was very active in the Chicago, Illinois State and American Bar Associations, including serving in the House of Delegates of the American Bar Association (1974-1977) (1984-1991) and as President of the Illinois State Bar Association in 1975. As a young lawyer, he was one of the first recipients of the Illinois State Bar Association's annual Abraham Lincoln writing awards. Mr. Pusateri served as Chairman of the Defense of Prisoners Committee of the Chicago Bar Association at the time of the Martin Luther King riots. Other highlights of his legal career include his service as a Special Assistant Attorney General of Illinois (1972-1976), and as an Assistant State's Attorney of Cook County (1958-1960), rising to the position of Chief of the Narcotics Bureau. He served as an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the United States Army (1954-1957) and served as a prosecutor in Bamberg, Germany rape trial, which was subsequently made into a movie ''Town Without Pity'' in 1961. Then, First Lieutenant Lawrence Pusateri was the successful chief prosecutor in the case in which all seven defendants convicted of the gang rape of a young German female were sentenced to long periods of incarceration. It was during his military service in Germany that he met his wife, Eve Graf. In 1990 he was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by the Board of Governors of the Illinois State Bar Association. He was appointed twice by the Illinois Supreme Court to commissions to study the court systems in Illinois after the ''Greylord'' and ''Gambat'' investigations became public. He received his J.D. Degree summa cum laude in June of 1953 from DePaul University of Law, where he was the first recipient of the degree summa cum laude in the history of DePaul University College of Law. He graduated first in his class and served as Editor in Chief of the DePaul Law Review. He recently received the distinguished Alumni Award from DePaul University College of Law (1999). After leaving the Illinois Appellate Court in 1978, he joined the international law firm of Peterson & Ross, where he served as partner. He most recently served as Of Counsel Partner in this firm where he retired as a Capital Partner in 1995. Mr. Pusateri also attained the highest achievement in his field of practice, the Chairmanship of the Conference on Consumer Finance Law, an international conference of attorneys specializing in Consumer Finance Law. He served as Chairman for approximately 10 years. He was very active in charitable work for which he received awards from the Shriner's Hospital for Children, the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society, among others. Lawrence X. Pusateri loved to travel and enjoyed reading historical novels, as well as boating and spending time with his family at their second home in Whitewater, WI. He is survived by his wife, Eve; their five children; seven grandchildren; and by his brother, Rev. Christian Pusateri.