Theodore R. Postel, 77, a fixture on the front page of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin for almost 30 years whose columns were required reading in the city’s legal community, died of pulmonary fibrosis Friday, Nov. 15, in his Lincoln Park retirement home.
Long before winning the paper’s top columnist job in 1973, Mr. Postel was known for his analytical mind and work ethic. He pumped out his column five days a week, 52 weeks a year, more than 5,000 articles in all.
And that was just his side job. He also kept up a full caseload as a personal injury attorney. Each day on the train he scribbled ideas on the backs of legal opinions and dictated his column into a tape recorder.
“He was meticulously organized and he worked like a machine. People just couldn’t believe he practiced as a full-time lawyer as well,” said his son Joseph, also a Chicago lawyer.
“But that column was his life. Even in the last days, when he was on an oxygen tank and could hardly get out of bed, he still wrote that column. You couldn’t stop him.”
Born in 1925 on the West Side, Mr. Postel was a junior at Sullivan High School when he enlisted in the Army shortly after Pearl Harbor. He fought at Normandy, through France and in Germany, earning four bronze battle stars, according to his son and military records.
When he returned in 1946, he used the GI Bill to attend a junior college, then graduated near the top of his class in 1951 at John Marshall Law School. He established a Loop law firm with two friends, then went into practice by himself representing personal injury plaintiffs, his son said.
On a whim, Mr. Postel applied for the Law Bulletin’s columnist job. For the next 30 years, he wrote on the latest Illinois Appellate and Supreme Court decisions, quickly distilling them into understandable rules for the city’s working lawyers.
In the last few months, his column went down to three times a week, said Bernard Judge, the Law Bulletin’s editor and publisher.
“He was an institution around here,” Judge said. “It’s unusual anywhere for someone to write a column for that long. He had such a reputation, there’s no way you could replace him.”
Lawyer Phil Corboy, who knew Mr. Postel for almost 30 years, said he was a teacher to generations of young lawyers, including himself.
“Though we were the same age, I always thought of him as a father figure. He spent his life educating lawyers, and I came to depend on him,” Corboy said. “He never became jaded or cynical with the law. And whenever he assessed a case, he never made a mistake. He was that good.”
Mr. Postel’s wife, Patricia Kerwin, died in February, his son said. Mr. Postel is survived by another son, Daniel; a daughter, Mary Jude Ramirez; and four grandchildren.
Visitation will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Haben Funeral Home, 8057 Niles Center Rd., Skokie. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Wednesday at St. Lambert Catholic Church, 8148 Karlov Ave., Skokie.
