Page 113 - ACTL Journal Win24

Charles W. Douglas, ’08, passed on September 8, 2023 at the age of seventy-five. Chuck graduated from North- western University in 1970 and Harvard Law School in
1974. Law School was interrupted for a year by his active duty in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1974, Chuck joined the prominent Chicago law firm where he would spend his entire career and where he was heavily involved in management and strategic planning. Chuck also led the firm’s litigation practice for many years. Chuck personal- ly and successfully represented many well-known clients, including AT&T, Deloitte, G.D. Searle & Co. (Pfizer), Zenith Electronics, and IBP (Tyson Foods), among many others, in multiple landmark cases and decisions. Chuck was also deeply involved in the Chicago community and was a stalwart supporter of education and the arts. Chuck was a Trustee of Northwestern University since 2000, also serving as a Chair of the Board’s Governance and Nom- inations Committee; a Director of The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Memorial Hospital; Board Member and Chairman of the Chicago Academy of Sciences and the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum; a Trustee of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; a member of The Chica- go Club since 1988, of which he also served as President since 2022; and a Trustee of the United States Supreme Court Historical Society. Chuck is survived by his wife Diane, two children and four grandchildren.
Robert E. Dyer, ’83, was ninety-four on November 9, 2023 when he passed, leaving his wife of forty-two years, Jutta Dyer, five children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Robert graduated from Northwest- ern Law School in 1953; thirty years later, he estimated that he had tried 400 cases to juries. A veteran of the United States Army, Robert served during World War II.
James Edward Farnham, ’86, died November 15, 2023 at the age of eighty-one. Jim grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, up the street from his future bride, Carole Erskine. He graduated from the University of Tennessee in 1963, and Yale Law School in 1966. Jim and Carole moved to Richmond, Virginia where Jim loved playing games with his family, playing his autoharp and trying to get his family to sing along with him, and teaching his children and grandchildren how to fish. He and Carole were pointedly committed to the benefits of travel, and took many family vacations. Jim had a gift for entertaining, that served him both in court and at firm social events, where he was frequently the main act during skits, weddings and rehearsal dinners. Jim is pre- deceased by a son but survived by four other children, eight grandchildren, and his wife Dr. Carole Farnham.
Francis H. Fox, ’81, died on September 6, 2023 after a lengthy illness at the age of ninety. I knew Fran. But apparently not as well as I should have. I had no idea he had served as a naval aviator. No idea he had achieved the rank of Captain (the Naval equivalent of full colo- nel). My loss. Fran attended Holy Cross College (Class of 1955) before graduating from Harvard Law School in 1963. Following his graduation from Holy Cross, where he was in the Navy ROTC, Fran entered active duty, specializing in reconnaissance. After fulfilling his active-duty commitment, Fran remained in the naval reserve, where he served twenty-plus years as a squadron commander at Weymouth Naval Air Station. During his naval career, Fran conducted countless surveillance sorties over the Atlantic, operating from his home base and various aircraft carriers at sea. During the Cuban Missile Crisis era, he flew S2’s in formation, patrolling for Russian submarines. He cut short those sorties only once, after his superiors radioed to warn him he was in trouble with his father-in-law, “who says your wife is about to give birth to your first child in a taxi.”
WINTER 2024
JOURNAL 112