Legal community honors ‘sage of DuPage’ with facility, sculpture

A longtime heavyweight in the DuPage County legal community was honored Thursday with the dedication of a judicial facility and sculpture at the courthouse in Wheaton.

Officials named the judicial annex at 503 N. County Farm Road after Judge William J. Bauer, who began his career as a local prosecutor in 1952 and went on to receive federal appointments from Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

“He’s been an icon in the legal community,” said former county board Chairman Robert Schillerstrom, who called Bauer the “sage of DuPage.”

Bauer, 85, of Elmhurst, joked that he expected a “6-inch Bobblehead” before officials unveiled a detailed bronze bust in his image. The sculpture by Budapest artist Gyongyi Szathmary will remain on display in the courtyard just outside the annex facility.

“I can’t thank you enough,” Bauer told a crowd of more than 100, adding he has no plans to retire. “It’s still the best job in the world.”

Bauer was promoted to first assistant state’s attorney in DuPage in 1956 and elected state’s attorney two years later. In 1964, he was elected 18th Judicial Circuit Court judge, where he worked for six years before President Nixon appointed him U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

In 1974, President Ford nominated — and the Senate approved — Bauer as a judge in the U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. More than a decade later, he was appointed chief justice of the court.

Bauer spent the last 15 years as a senior judge, and also a trustee for Elmhurst College, DePaul University, Loyola School of Law, Elmhurst Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago.

“Bill Bauer’s service has been marked by humility, a lack of arrogance, great credibility, wisdom, knowledge, a sense of humor, passion — all the things that separate the extraordinary from the ordinary,” former Gov. James Thompson said at Thursday’s ceremony.

Schillerstrom said about $60,000 was raised through the DuPage County Bar Association to commission and install Bauer’s sculpture. The effort grew out of a resolution passed by the county board unanimously last year to name the annex facility after Bauer.

“Bill is a wonderful man and a wonderful leader,” Schillerstrom said. “We felt it was appropriate to honor him.”