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Bush had fulfilled his Texas Air National Guard obligations during the Vietnam War. Mapes was dismissed, as was her boss Dan Rather, when the investigation concluded that she had failed to authenticate the documents. The movie Truth starred Cate Blanchett as Mapes and Robert Redford as Rather. Richard graduated from Le Moyne College in Syra- cuse and Georgetown Law School.
After a fellowship, he joined a public defender agency, then shift- ed to the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington before beginning pri- vate practice. Richard is survived by his wife of fifty-six years, the former Mary Ellen Leary, two chil- dren and three grandchildren.
Charles Richard Jelliffe,’76, was eighty-nine when he died nearly nine years ago, quietly enough that we didn’t learn about it until just now. Dick was survived by his wife of sixty-five years, Mary Frances (Glisson) Jelliffe. Dick was a World War II veteran of the U.S. Army Air Corps and was stationed in Japan with the Army of Occupation in 1946. He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1948 and University’s College of Law in 1951, and practiced in Har- risburg, in far-Southern Illinois.
William Warren Karatz, ’71, died on August 22, 2022 at age ninety-six. Bill grew up in Chicago and lived most of his life in New York City, where he practiced law until his retirement in 1986. Bill served in the Navy, stationed in Guam, during World War II. After the War, he earned a degree from the University of Chicago in 1948 as a Laverne Noyes scholar. In 1949, he started graduate work in Political Science at Columbia University, and then received his JD in 1952 from Columbia, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar and an Editor of the Columbia Law Review. Bill was a passionate collector of Asian art and several of his pieces are now in museum collections. He enjoyed the performing and studio arts and gave generously to arts institutions. He col- lected fine wines and became a grand officer in Confrerie des Chevaliers du Tastevin. Bill was predeceased by his wife Barbara Lansburgh (Low) Karatz.
John Backes LaVecchia, Sr., ’81, was ninety-two at his death on March 6, 2024. John attended Princeton Univer- sity and Law School at Columbia University, graduating in
1957. In the summer of 1956, John began dating Emy Lou Cahill. They were married the next year and their sixty-sev- en-year marriage yielded seven children and nine grand- children. In 1985, when Edwin Meese was nominated to
be Attorney General of the U.S., Senator William Proxmire published a list of eighteen attorneys who he believed to be better qualified for the role, John one of them. John bal- anced work with weekend trips and outings, hikes, canoe trips, and sports.
Robert E. Leake, Jr., ’78, passed away on March 16, 2022, a few months after celebrating his ninety-fourth birthday. He was a mentor to and role model for virtually anyone who had any connection with him. Bob became an LSU undergrad at the end of World War II and graduated from LSU Law School in 1948 at a time when you could get a law degree without first receiving an undergraduate degree. Bob started at a New Orleans firm but could not practice law for sever- al months because he had not yet reached the required age of twenty-one. Bob was a passionate, dedicated and high- ly skilled golfer. He loved singing at opera productions, in choirs and anywhere else as the mood struck or inspired him. Bob was predeceased by his wife, Dr. Martha Ellis Leake, and survived by five children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Hon. William Charles Lee, ’79, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana died January 20, 2024 at the age of eighty-five. Judge Lee was born in Fort Wayne and graduated from Yale University in 1959 before getting his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1962. Judge Lee was former President Ronald Reagan’s first appoin- tee to the federal bench in July 1981. He served as chief judge for the Northern District from 1997 to 2003. Before taking the bench, Judge Lee served as prosecuting attorney for Allen County and as U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Indiana, nominated for that position at the age of thirty-one. Not simply a prosecutor, Judge Lee served as chairman of the Indiana Pro Bono Commission, as president of the Al- len County Legal Aid Society and a board member for the Volunteer Lawyer Program of North East Indiana. Judge Lee loved performing and was featured in major roles in The Mi- kado, The Gondoliers, The Pirates of Penzance, HMS Pinafore, Princess Ida, Hello, Dolly!, Kiss Me Kate, Amahl & the Night Visitors, Diary of Anne Frank, Harvey and Life With Father.
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