Former Circuit Judge Robert Boharic 'pursued everything to the fullest'

Bob Boharic didn’t just live and learn and laugh every day. He attacked each day like the former Marine he was.

It wasn’t good enough to be a tough-as-nails prosecutor turned criminal court judge who handled some of the most heinous local cases before deciphering mind-numbing insurance and real estate disputes in the Chancery Division.

He honed his craft, spending part of every summer at a judicial college in Nevada.

The uber-competitive Mr. Boharic wasn’t satisfied learning tae kwon do and playing softball. He earned a black belt and played in three softball leagues a week.

Diet and exercise didn't solve his weight problem, so he used a liquid diet to lose 100 pounds — and kept most of it off.

And when Mr. Boharic sought comfort in religion after the death of his 3-year-old, first-born son, he immersed himself in the Catholic Church, becoming a deacon and learning Hebrew and Greek.

"My dad had a heart of gold. He pursued everything to the fullest and showered those he loved with every fiber of his being," said his son, the Rev. Tom Boharic. "Not a single thing was done half-heartedly. He pursued everything as if God himself had asked him to do it."

Robert Vincent Boharic died Sunday of complications related to congestive heart failure. He was 79.

Mr. Boharic was born July 7, 1945, at Misericordia Maternity Home in Chicago. His 23-year-old mother, unwed, was working in a Chicago defense plant. She gave him up for adoption.

His adoptive father, John Boharic, was a manager for the tractor works division of International Harvester, then across the street from the criminal court complex where Mr. Boharic later served. His adoptive mother, Marie Leben, was a homemaker.

Mr. Boharic adored both.

“Being adopted was almost like a privilege to him,” said Katie Boharic, his wife of 53 years. “His parents were childless. They chose him. He completed their family.”

Mr. Boharic attended St. Sabina Church and graduated from Leo High School, where he played football before moving on to John Carroll University in Cleveland.

With the Vietnam War raging, Mr. Boharic enlisted in the Marine Corps after graduating from college. Although he trained for combat at Camp Pendleton in California, Mr. Boharic was spared by a lucky twist of fate.

A clerk-typist was needed at Camp Mount Fuji in Japan. So he served the remainder of his two-year stint typing and even playing baseball with Japanese soldiers.

“He got the golden ticket because he was already helping with the paperwork for troop assignments,” Katie Boharic said.

When outrage over the 1969 police killings of Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark swept Republican Sheriff Bernard Carey into the state’s attorney’s office, Mr. Boharic was hired as an assistant state’s attorney.

Eight years later, Carey lost a nail-biter election to Democrat Richard M. Daley. Mr. Boharic, a lifelong Republican, lost his job.

But Mr. Boharic's mother-in-law, Ethel Kane, worked in Orland Township Republican politics and helped her son-in-law get slated for circuit court judge. Mr. Boharic won his first election and was assigned to Criminal Court.

Mr. Boharic and Daley would meet again — at Children’s Memorial Hospital.

Daley’s 33-month-old son, Kevin, was being treated for spina bifida. Bobby Boharic — “the first person in the world who ever looked like me,” as Mr. Boharic put it — had neuroblastoma, a deadly form of childhood cancer. Both toddlers died within months of each other.

Many marriages don’t survive the death of a child. Bob and Kate Boharic’s marriage got stronger. The two lapsed Catholics turned to the church. Mr. Boharic became a devoted deacon, spending Sunday afternoons comforting the sick in living rooms and nursing homes. Saturday mornings, he tutored kids at St. Agatha’s Church in North Lawndale.

“His favorite part of being a deacon was baptizing children. He loved children. He loved their smiling faces. He loved to preach to children,” his daughter Marie Schwarzenberger said.

His son-in-law, Tim Schwarzenberger, added: “One of his greatest joys was spending time and laughing with his grandchildren.”

His son, Tom, is now pastor of Mother of the Americas Church in Little Village, delivering his sermons in Spanish and English.

In 1990, the ever-optimistic Mr. Boharic tried his hand at politics by running for the Illinois Supreme Court. The opponent was former Chicago Mayor Michael Bilandic.

The campaign used buttons with a diagonal line through a snowman to remind voters of the Blizzard of '79 that swept Bilandic out of the mayor’s office. It didn't work. Mr. Boharic lost in a landslide.

In 2007, another twist of fate led Mr. Boharic to his adoptive mother. His daughter, Marie, was working in the post-adoption division at Catholic Charities and told her dad he could fill out a form to request information about his long-ago adoption.

The connection helped Mr. Boharic reunite with two half-brothers and a half-sister.

“It filled in a gap,” Katie Boharic said.

Besides his wife, daughter, son and and son-in-law, Mr. Boharic's survivors include daughter Margaret; son John, daughter-in-law Jaclyn Hise; seven grandchildren; and half-siblings William and Patricia O’Hara.

Visitation will be Friday at St. Mary's Church in Riverside. Services will be Saturday, also at St. Mary's.

Donations can be made to Mother of the Americas Church, 2226 S. Whipple, Chicago 60623 and to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.