In Memoriam: A look back at some influential Chicagoans who who died in 2024

With a pen, a softball mitt, a gavel. Through generosity, sacrifice. With a smile, a kind word. Chicago was made better by so many people who sadly left us in 2024 but who each left their unique mark on the city in some way, and whose life was celebrated through the remembrances of friends and families in Sun-Times obituaries.

Here are some of the individuals we recalled this year:

Ben Stern, 102. A Holocaust survivor who could not abide the advice of his Skokie temple rabbi who urged people in 1977 to draw their blinds if a group of neo-Nazis were to march through the north suburb. “Not here. Not now. Not in America," responded Stern, who helped gather more than 750,000 signatures to ban the proposed Nazi rally and appeared on Phil Donahue’s talk show. The march, after legal challenges, took place in 1978, but threatened with thousands of counter protesters, it was moved to the Loop. About 25 neo-Nazis held a rally that drew about 3,000 counter-protesters who threw bottles, eggs, rocks and sticks and, held back by police, shouted, “Death, death, death to the Nazis!” (Feb. 28)

Jack Higgins, 69. The Pulitzer Prize-winning Sun-Times cartoonist once wrote of his job: “Political cartoons are meant to take the mighty and the pompous and cut them down to a more manageable size. Afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted." In 1989, he won the Pulitzer for a collection of cartoons that included a drawing of vice presidential candidate Dan Quayle playing golf while Vietnamese children flee from a napalm attack, with Quayle asking the children, “Mind if I play through?” (Feb. 10)

Richard Phelan, 86. As Cook County Board president from 1990 to 1994, Phelan restored abortion services at the county hospital system despite his Roman Catholic faith — but he fell short in his bid to move up to the governor’s mansion. After a career as a trial lawyer, Phelan was thrust into the limelight in 1988 when he was appointed as special outside counsel to probe then-Speaker of the House Jim Wright of Texas. (March 26)

Mark Frighetto, 69. One of the best defensive short centers who ever played in the city's elite echelons of 16-inch softball, Frighetto pretended to be a gunslinger after making a difficult play to get under the skin of his opponents. “If he was on your team, you loved him, and if you played against him, you hated him,” said pal Hugh Carmichael. “When he was on the field there was nothing else, no waving at your girlfriend,” recalled his wife, Nancie Frighetto. “His trunk was infested with softballs, dust everywhere, it was a condition of marriage to expect softball dust in the washing machine,” she said. (May 21)

Elaine Pierce, 69. While coping with terminal cancer, Pierce, opened her Oak Park home to 13 South American migrants last summer, including three children. “I get kissed and hugged six times a day now,” Pierce, a member of First United Church of Oak Park, said last year of the affection she received as her guests would head to work or to look for a job or the kids left for school. She took on the responsibility without assistance from the city or state and without asking for rent or help with utilities, covering many expenses herself. (May 26)

Marian Lois Shields Robinson, 86. From a small apartment on Chicago’s South Side, she raised her daughter, Michelle Obama, and later went to live in the White House when her son-in-law Barack Obama became president. Michelle Obama credited her mother and her late father, Fraser, for instilling in her values and discipline while growing up at 7436 S. Euclid Ave. After living in the White House, she moved back to Chicago. An exhibit in the Obama Presidential Center Museum, now under construction in Jackson Park, will be named in her honor. (May 31)

Chuck “The Voice” Roberts, 66. He sermonized into a mic in 1986 about the virtues of house music but had no idea his words would become a credo of sorts for the underground dance genre. Bootlegged samples of the track spread around the globe, but hardly anyone knew whose voice it was. He contributed to just the one track — "My House" — on the lone album the Chicago group, Rhythm Controll, ever made. He later toiled for years as a bread maker but finally got his due when he took the stage at the Chosen Few DJ festival in Jackson Park in 2017 and boomed the words live for the first time in 27 years. Stunned fans went bananas, video went viral, and Roberts got his second act in music. (June 6)

Harry D. Leinenweber, 87. The legal giant from Joliet served for decades in Chicago as a U.S. district judge. He was nominated by President Ronald Reagan to a seat in the Northern District of Illinois in 1985 after serving as a state lawmaker. Known for being cool, level-headed and caring, but no pushover, he oversaw the trial of former R&B star R. Kelly in 2022 and a major Illinois corruption trial involving four political insiders tied to ComEd in 2023. He remained on the bench until his death. (June 11)

Ann Lurie, 79. One of the most prolific and visible philanthropists in Chicago’s history, Lurie was a self-described hippie when she moved to Chicago from Florida in 1973 to work as a children's hospital intensive care nurse. She soon met her second husband, Robert H. Lurie, a successful commercial real estate businessman. The two had six children before he died from colon cancer in 1990 at the age of 48. He left behind an estate worth $425 million. Lurie dedicated herself to putting it to good use. By 2007, she had donated $277 million. The hospital she worked upon arriving in Chicago is now known as Lurie Children's Hospital. (June 24)

Malcolm Woo, 79. Not long after he became one of the first Chinese American officers on the Chicago police force in 1969, Woo was tapped for undercover work because he had a unique ability to blend in. “There’s pictures back when he was doing undercover work, and he had long hair, a mustache, a beard, so you don’t know if he was Chinese, Mexican, Middle Eastern,” said his wife Tina Woo. Woo, who co-founded the Asian American Law Enforcement Association, spent the last decade of his career on Mayor Richard M. Daley’s security detail. (July 8)

Mary Ann Smith, 77. As a member of the city council from 1989 to 2011, she led a renaissance in the 48th Ward, which includes parts of Edgewater and Uptown. From overseeing the creation of the city’s first traffic circles, speed humps and bike lanes to planting dozens of new trees along Broadway Street, she was all-in on environmentally-friendly beautification and making her ward more livable. Smith always had two or three dogs and two or three cats and promoted dog walking as a vital part of community safety. (July 31)

Jim Crowley, 59. The former Chicago Police Officer suffered traumatic brain injuries in 1987 at the age of 22 when a drunken driver hit the squad car he was riding in. Since the accident — which killed fellow police Officer William Morrison — Crowley used a wheelchair and needed help with every aspect of his life. In 2019, his sister Beth Carter, made it her mission to bring Crowley home to Chicago to celebrate Christmas and be with friends. He'd been living in a group home in San Marcos, Texas, where he received specialized care. (Aug. 22)

Tyrone Fahner, 81. As Illinois attorney general, he led a task force investigating the 1982 Tylenol murders, in which seven people were killed in the Chicago area after ingesting cyanide-laced Tylenol. Fahner also worked as a federal prosecutor and became a leader of the law firm Mayer Brown. “Ty was a dear friend and one of the most admired attorneys in Illinois recent history,” said former Illinois U.S. Attorney Dan K. Webb. (Sept. 16)

Tony Durpetti, 80. The gregarious owner of Gene & Georgetti — the city’s oldest steakhouse ended up running the same restaurant where, as a kid, he earned tips as a self-appointed doorman until one of the owners, Gene Michelotti, shooed him away. How could the frustrated proprietor have realized he was chasing away his future son-in-law? There were no hard feelings. “My father-in-law was a genius who built a unique American institution. Every day I thank God that I haven’t screwed it up yet,” Durpetti liked to say. (Sept. 26)

Bob Love, 81. Simply put, he was a Chicago Bulls legend. "Just salt of the earth, man. So humble, loved life. I never saw him not smiling," recalled three-time NBA champion-turned-Bulls broadcaster Bill Wennington, who worked with Love as a Bulls ambassador. Love came to the Bulls early in the 1968-69 season and instantly made an impact by averaging 21 points per game. During his tenure with the franchise, he averaged 21.3 points and 6.8 rebounds and was a three-time All-Star. (Nov. 18)

You can read all of our 2024 obituaries at chicago.suntimes.com/obituaries.