Roger Michael Sullivan, ’86, died November 28, 2016
a month shy of his ninetieth birthday. Roger attended
Occidental College as part of the Navy V-5 program and
received his wings as a Naval Aviator in 1947. He earned
his B.A. at Loyola University and his J.D. at Loyola Law
School in 1952. Roger began his legal career as an attorney
with the Pacific Electric Railway Company. Five years
later he formed a firm with a friend. In 1959, Roger met
and married Jayne Colgan, a TWA flight attendant; they
were married fifty-six years, and she survived him, along
with five daughters and fourteen grandchildren. Roger
served as Chairman of the Los Angeles Bar Association,
Chairman of the National Conference of Christians and
Jews, President of Serra International (Los Angeles) and
the Right to Life League. A highlight of his legal career as
an eminent domain attorney was his front-page representation
of the Gherini family, when in 1999 a federal jury
awarded in their favor after the National Park Service had
seized control of their 6,300 acres of Santa Cruz Island.
Donald M. Tennant, ’83, was eightynine
when he died on October 27, 2020.
When his family moved from Wisconsin
where he had been a star high school
athlete, Don turned down a baseball
scholarship to the University of Illinois
and enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1950.
He was stationed in Okinawa and volunteered
to go to Korea to fight in the Korean War, where
he earned a Bronze Star. Don returned home and received
his law degree in 1958. He spent most of his career defending
medical malpractice claims with his son, Todd,
and they were an outstanding trial attorney team. Don
taught trial advocacy for eighteen years at the Law School.
He also served as president of the Champaign County
Bar. Don was survived by his wife, Nancy, three children,
fourteen grandchildren and eighteen great-grandchildren;
his son Todd predeceased him. Don’s greatest joy
was the time spent watching his children and grandchildren
in sports; he was able to watch his grandson win a
gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics as a member
of the 4 x 100 Men’s Medley team.
Paul T. Theisen, ’81, passed away on December 2,
2020 at the age of eighty-nine. Paul went to the University
of Cincinnati on a football scholarship and was also
a starting pitcher on its baseball team. He graduated in
1953 with an A.B. in political science and economics
and was commissioned in the Army ROTC. After his
second year of law school at the University of Cincinnati
College of Law, Paul was ordered to active duty and
reported to Ft. Bliss where he was trained as a NIKE
surface-to-air guided missile battery commander. He
served two years and returned to law school where he
was Associate Editor of the Law Review and was elected
to The Order of the Coif. Paul became a civil trial lawyer
representing insurance companies and corporations.
Paul also had a thirty-five-year career as a banker; he
was a member of the Board of Directors of The Peoples
Banking and Trust Company of Marietta, Ohio. Paul
was survived by his wife of twenty-four years, Judith
Carolyn, four children and eight grandchildren.
John J. Thomason, ’83, died in the early morning
hours of Christmas Eve, December 24, 2020 at the age
of ninety-one. Buddy received his law degree from the
University of Tennessee, College of Law in 1952, where
he was a member of the Board of Editors of the Tennessee
Law Review and President of the University of
Tennessee graduating class of 1952. Buddy was commissioned
in the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s
Corps and served for two years in Germany, where he
met Sally Palmer, who was then an exchange student
from Sweden. They were married in 1956. Buddy
served for two years as the Assistant Public Defender
for Shelby County and as an Assistant City Attorney
for Memphis. He was president of the Young Lawyers
of Memphis and of Tennessee, and Chairman of the
17,000-member General Practice Section of the American
Bar Association. He was a visiting professor of advocacy
at the University of Tennessee College of Law in
Knoxville. In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
was assassinated in Memphis, John joined with other
influential Memphians to found the Counterpart Club
of black and white community leaders. Buddy learned to
fly and earned his pilot license in middle age and became
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