Carl William "Bill" Isaacson

1931 - 2024

Isaacson, Carl William "Bill"

93, departed from this life on Monday June 24, 2024. He is survived by his wife Maureen, his three sons, Bill (Sophia McCrocklin), Bob (Jane Darst), and Mike (Joe Ortmeyer) and his loving granddaughters, Kacie, Maggie and Sara and grandsons Nick and Christopher.

Bill was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 22, 1931, the only child of Carl and Mary Isaacson. He grew up in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, and graduated from Marquette High School, Marquette University and Marquette Law School. In college he was the manager for the Marquette basketball team and when he graduated, Coach Tex Winter offered to pay his law school tuition ($500/semester) if he stayed on as manager. Bill enjoyed telling his family he could beat everyone on the basketball team in Horse, because he had a left-handed and a right-handed hook shot.

In 1954, in his first year of law school, Bill met an undergraduate, Maureen Catherine Treacy, on the Marquette campus. They dated in the following years and after graduating law school, Bill was drafted into the Army where he served two years in logistics positions, which gave him lifelong memories of food he thought was lousy. After the Army, Bill and Maureen were married on July 25, 1959.

From then, Bill practiced tax law for as short a period as he could and then moved into labor law, working for a series of companies in their labor or law departments, including W.H. Brady in Milwaukee and Armour meatpacking company in Sheboygan Wisconsin, and then Deerfield, Illinois, and two years in Phoenix, Arizona, followed by John Morrell back in Deerfield. In 1976, he returned with his family to Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he worked for the Wisconsin Electric Company, Allis Chalmers and finally United HealthCare nursing homes from which he retired in 2001. Bill spent his career successfully negotiating union contracts without ever seeing a strike. After retirement, in 2009, Bill and Maureen moved to St. Louis, home of their sons Mike and Bob, and their granddaughters who after school would burst into their grandparent's new home in Glendale.

Bill was a devout Catholic who was a committed altar boy and as an adult often lectored at Mass. He was known for the rosaries hanging from the knobs on his car radio. He was also a devout fan of the Marquette basketball team and the Green Bay Packers. He liked midafternoon snacks of candy bars, meals with large portions, eating off the plates of his children, and desserts of ice cream, sherbet and cookies. Despite all that, he was fit because he began jogging before people even used that word. His day began, no matter how cold, with up to a 10-mile run, a shower, and then a 6:30 a.m. Mass. He enjoyed reading stacks of newspapers from multiple cities. Throughout his life, if asked how he was that day, without fail, he would say with a smile, "Just like always: grouchy, out of sorts, and hard to get along with."

Services: His funeral will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, July 5th at St. Peter Catholic Church at 243 W Argonne Drive in Kirkwood with a visitation beforehand at 9 am. There will be a reception following the funeral across the street at Mike Duffy's Bar & Grill, 124 W. Jefferson Ave. In a future week, Bill's remains will be buried at St. Mary's Visitation Cemetery in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, alongside the parents of Bill and Maureen. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Peter Catholic Church for the Parish Master Plan, 243 W. Argonne Dr., Kirkwood MO 63122 (https://stpeterkirkwood.org). www.boppchapel