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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3learn of the death of Richard H. Parsons of Peoria, who passed
4away on March 26, 2014; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons was born in McAlester, Oklahoma on
6June 9, 1936 to Alfred Richard and Veronica Cecilia Parsons; he
7graduated from Taylorville High School in 1954, where he
8participated in football, basketball, baseball, track & field,
9and tennis, for which he was elected captain of the first
10Taylorville High School varsity tennis team; he earned his
11Bachelor of Science from Bradley University in 1958 and married
12Catherine Logan on August 9 of that same year; he served in the
13United States Marine Corps PLC Program; and
 
14    WHEREAS, Tennis always played an important role in Richard
15Parsons's life; after graduating from Bradley University,
16where he continued to play tennis, he continued to play and win
17the Club and Bar Association mixed and men's doubles
18tournaments, including championships at the Mount Hawley
19Country Club, the Peoria Tennis Association, the Peoria Country
20Bar Association, and the Racquet Club of Peoria; he was 3-time
21winner of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
22Tournament and his home and office were filled with dozens of
23tennis and golf trophies; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons graduated from Washington & Lee
2College of Law in 1961, where he was business editor of the
3Washington & Lee Law Review and worked nearly a full-time
4schedule for The Lexington Gazette; he completed his
5post-graduate studies in constitutional law at Harvard Law
6School under its judges' program in the 1980s; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Upon graduating from law school, Richard Parsons
8worked for Chicago Title and Trust Company for 7 years,
9ultimately becoming the company's youngest officer and serving
10as one of its lobbyists in Springfield; in 1968, he moved to
11Peoria and entered private practice and shortly thereafter
12formed and owned the Bankers Title Company, an issuing agent
13for Pioneer National Title Insurance Corporation; during this
14time, he also served on the board of directors for the Peoria
15Heights Bank, the Illinois Crown Insurance Corporation, the
16Rock Island Title and Abstract Company, the Fairway Life
17Insurance Corporation, the Peacock Engineering Company, and
18Another Chicago Press Company; in the 1970s, he began to focus
19his private practice toward criminal defense work and often
20represented people without the funds to hire an attorney, and
21in 1995, he became the first federal public defender for the
22Central District of Illinois; he created the department from
23the ground up, retiring in August of 2011; and
 

 

 

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1    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons was active in the Democratic
2Party; he was appointed by the Governor to the Illinois Capital
3Development Board, where he was instrumental in obtaining
4lights for Memorial Stadium at the University of Illinois; he
5served as precinct committeeman and delegate to the 1972
6Democratic National Convention, and in 1975, he was appointed
7by the Governor to the position of commissioner/trial judge for
8the Illinois Court of Claims, which he held for 20 years; and
 
9    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons continued to serve the law
10following retirement; in 1999, the Seventh Circuit Court of
11Appeals requested he take on the role of circuit appellate
12defender, litigating federal cases on appeal from Illinois,
13Wisconsin, and Indiana, and in that same year, he appeared
14before the U.S. Supreme Court in O'Sullivan v. Boerckel; in
152003, he added to his duties by serving as the acting federal
16public defender for the Southern District of Illinois, while
17continuing with the Central District of Illinois; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons was involved in numerous legal
19organizations, including the American Bar Association, the
20Illinois State Bar Association, the Peoria County Bar
21Association; he was a life-member of the National Association
22of Criminal Defense Lawyers and a 3-time chairman of the
23American Bar Association's Criminal Amicus Curiae Committee;
24he served for 7 years as director of the Illinois State Bar

 

 

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1Association's Criminal Justice Council, as Amicus Curiae
2Chairman for 4 years, as past-President of the Clarence Darrow
3Inn of the American Inns of Court, and as past-President of the
4Illinois Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers; in 2000, he
5was awarded the association's Lawyer of the Year Award, the
6first "downstater" to win; he also served a 2-year term on the
7Board of Directors of the Peoria County Bar Association and a
83-year term on the Illinois Capital Litigation Trial Screening
9Committee; he was listed in Marquis Who's Who in America; and
 
10    WHEREAS, Over the years, Richard Parsons taught at numerous
11seminars for the criminal defense bar; he was on the faculty
12for attorney training programs hosted by the Seventh Circuit
13Court of Appeals, the Defender Services Division of the United
14States Courts, the Federal Defenders in several districts, the
15Wisconsin State Bar Association, the Wisconsin Association of
16Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Indiana Association of Criminal
17Defense Lawyers, and the Illinois Association of Criminal
18Defense Lawyers; and
 
19    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons authored a number of articles in
20several publications directed at criminal defense lawyers;
21additionally, he acted as editor of the nationally acclaimed
22newsletter "The Back Bencher" and he appeared on the cover of
23the September 1987 issue of the "National Law Journal", the 3rd
24quarter cover of the "Criminal Defense Quarterly", and the

 

 

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1front page of the Peoria Journal star on at least 2 occasions;
2and
 
3    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons co-founded the St. Patrick's Day
4Parade in Peoria, serving as "parade chairman" for first one in
51981 and receiving the honor of being the grand marshal in
61984; he also helped organize the first Erin Feis Festival in
7Peoria and was co-founder of the local division of the Ancient
8Order of Hibernians, which was named the Richard H. Parsons
9Division in honor of his efforts to foster the growth and
10awareness of Irish heritage in Central Illinois, for which he
11served as the chapter's president; he also served as State
12director, board member, and officer of the State of Illinois's
13Ancient Order of Hibernians; he was director general of the
14Puff Club Foundation Trust and President of the Old Rumpolian
15Society; he was co-founder of the W.C. Fields Golf League and
16former board member of the Friends of Fatherless Boys and the
17Knights of Columbus, Spalding Council 427, Third Degree; he was
18also a member of the IVY Club of Peoria, the Union League Club
19of Chicago, and the Mount Hawley Country Club, where he scored
20his 2 holes-in-one, as well as winning the Managers's Cup; and
 
21    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons was a single-to-low digit
22handicap golfer at Mount Hawley Country Club and a champion at
23men's and mixed doubles tennis into his mid-60s; he continued
24to be a bibliophile and master crossword puzzler late in life;

 

 

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1and
 
2    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons was preceded in death by his
3sisters, Helen Murphy and Mary Ann Caster; and
 
4    WHEREAS, Richard Parsons is survived by his wife,
5Catherine; his children, Karen Voss, Anne Muren, and A. Richard
6Parsons, II; and by his 8 grandchildren; therefore, be it
 
7    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-EIGHTH GENERAL
8ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn the passing of
9Richard H. Parsons, and extend our sincere condolences to his
10family, friends, and all who knew and loved him; and be it
11further
 
12    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
13presented to the family of Richard Parsons as an expression of
14our deepest sympathy.