Although Jeremiah Marsh’s career included work as a legislative aide to a U.S. senator, general counsel to a state governor and chairman of a prominent law firm, he always had time for his family and friends.
“There was nobody any nicer as a person than Jerry,” said co-worker Sam Vinson, a partner in the law firm Ungaretti & Harris. “On numerous occasions he personally wrote checks when people had financial difficulty. If they had problems with their kids, he was willing to go find a lawyer who could help a kid in some obscure town.”
Mr. Marsh, 70, died Monday, Jan. 19, of complications from a stroke and cancer in his Winnetka home.
Raised in Minnesota, he was an all-state football and basketball player, his wife, Marietta, said. He impressed his future wife on their first date.
“We were introduced by friends,” she said. “It was sort of a blind date. And we went out, and that was it.”
After graduating from Harvard Law School in 1958, Mr. Marsh moved to Chicago to practice law. When Edward Kennedy was elected to the U.S. Senate, Mr. Marsh went to Washington, D.C., as his legislative aide.
“He was a great friend from Harvard football days in the 1950s,” said Kennedy, the Democratic senator from Massachusetts, in a statement. “He was the `go-to’ man on every issue and one of the ablest people I’ve every worked with.”
In 1968 Mr. Marsh was appointed special counsel by new Illinois Gov. Richard Ogilvie. During the governor’s term, Mr. Marsh was involved with establishing the income tax and redrafting the constitution.
“The impact of Jerry’s work was really to reformulate the role of state government in Illinois,” said John McCarter, president of the Field Museum and state budget director under Ogilvie. “He did it brilliantly.”
Mr. Marsh returned to private practice and became co-chairman of the Chicago law firm Hopkins & Sutter before moving to Ungaretti in 2001.
William W. Wirtz, chairman and president of Wirtz Corp., turned to Mr. Marsh for everything from liquor laws to terms of the United Center construction.
“He was a great problem solver,” Wirtz said.
Mr. Marsh was a voracious reader, said his daughter, Kimberley. And he loved the outdoors, she said.
Competitive in almost everything he did, it was the battle, not the victory, he loved.
“I don’t get a lot of satisfaction out of winning a case or getting a big fee. What I enjoy is the process of doing these things,” he once told Vinson.
Mr. Marsh is also survived by two sons, Howard and Christopher; another daughter, Courtney Chapin; a sister, Joan Turner; and four grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 3:30 p.m. Jan. 30 at Holy Name Cathedral, 735 N. State St., Chicago.
