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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2     WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3 learn of the death of James W. Ashley of Vermont, formerly of
4 Hinsdale and Chicago, who passed away on April 2, 2007; and
 
5     WHEREAS, Mr. Ashley was involved with the YMCA as a young
6 attorney and remained active with the organization well into
7 the 1990s; he worked closely with John Root, former president
8 of the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago; he was elected chairman of
9 the YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago, having served on the group's
10 board since 1966; he chaired the board of the YMCA of the USA
11 from 1985 to 1987; in the early 1990s, Mr. Ashley headed a task
12 force to rebuild the Jerusalem YMCA, which is owned and
13 operated by the YMCA of the USA and has a staff equally divided
14 among Christians, Jews, and Muslims; after the completion of
15 the Jerusalem project, Mr. Ashley was involved with a project
16 next to the facility's building; and
 
17     WHEREAS, Mr. Ashley was a partner at McDermott, Will, and
18 Emery, where he chaired the estate planning department; Mr.
19 Ashley grew up in La Grange and graduated from Lyons Township
20 High School; he began taking classes at Fordham University in
21 New York; after the attack on Pearl Harbor he enlisted in the
22 U.S. Army Air Force, where he was a navigator in 40 missions
23 over Europe; and
 

 

 

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1     WHEREAS, Returning home from World War II, Mr. Ashley
2 successfully petitioned officials at Northwestern University's
3 law school to be admitted without an undergraduate degree;
4 after his graduation from law school, he worked in the trust
5 department at Continental Bank before joining McDermott, Will,
6 and Emery; he married the former Courtney Coolidge in 1947;
7 they divorced in the mid-1970s, and he married Joan Allbright
8 Crawford in 1975; and
 
9     WHEREAS, In addition to staying busy with the YMCA in
10 retirement, Mr. Ashley did a stint as treasurer for Vermont's
11 state Democratic party and served on several local boards; and
 
12     WHEREAS, Mr. James Ashley is survived by his wife, Joan;
13 his sons, James Jr., Christopher, Cooper, and John; his
14 daughter, Courtney; his sister, Elizabeth Watson; and 13
15 grandchildren; therefore, be it
 
16     RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-FIFTH GENERAL
17 ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
18 his family and friends, the passing of James W. Ashley; and be
19 it further
 
20     RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
21 presented to the family of James W. Ashley as a symbol of our

 

 

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1 sympathy.