Jim Burns, whose success took him from the basketball court to the federal courthouse as U.S. attorney (ND Illinois 1993-1997) died Friday, December 11, 2020. He was 75.

The death was announced by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White, who appointed Burns in April 2000 to serve as inspector general, a job he had held ever since. Burns took the post as federal investigators were continuing their Operation Safe Road corruption probe of the office under White’s predecessor, George Ryan, who was elected governor in 1998. Ryan was released from prison in 2013 after being sentenced to 6½ years on corruption charges.

Born in Quincy and raised in McLeansboro in southeastern Illinois, he led his high school to fourth place in the state basketball tournament before getting a scholarship to Northwestern University.

He won third-team All-America, Academic All-America and All-Big Ten honors in his senior season with the Wildcats in 1966-67 and graduated with a degree in history. He spent a year professionally with the Chicago Bulls and then the Dallas Chaparrals in the American Basketball Association in 1967 before a torn Achilles tendon late in the season ended his playing days.

He returned to Northwestern in 1968 and received a law degree in 1971. Burns then served as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1971 to 1978 and moved to the position of chief of the criminal division.

He then went into private practice, serving as a regulatory partner with Isham, Lincoln and Beale from 1978 to 1987 and then became a defense and regulatory partner with Keck, Mahin and Cate from 1987-1993.

Burns gave up the federal prosecutor’s post for an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1998. Burns returned to private practice at Sidley & Austin before being named to the inspector general’s job by White, whose office looked to try to restore voter integrity as a result of the federal investigations left under Ryan.

He is survived by his wife, Martha, and 3 children.  As is our custom, at the request of NAFUSA, an American flag was flown over Main Justice and will be presented to his family as a token of the regard with which Jim was held by his colleagues.

James R. Williams, who served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio (1978-1982) passed away on Friday, November 6, 2020. He was 88. He also served as an Akron Municipal Court judge, a member of the Akron City Council, and Summit County’s first Black Common Please Court judge. He was a civil rights leader and an officer with the Akron and Ohio branches of the NAACP. Ebony magazine named Williams one of the 100 most influential Black Americans.

Williams was preceded in death by his first wife, Catherine. He is survived by his wife, Jewell Cardwell-Williams and two children, Michael and Jacqueline, and four grandchildren.

As is our custom, NAFUSA will arrange for an American flag to be flown over Main Justice in James’ honor as a token of the esteem with which he was held by his colleagues.

Read full obituary from the Akron Beacon Journal

George Landon Phillips, former United States Attorney for the Southern District of Mississippi (1980-1994) died on January 26, 2015. He was honored by NAFUSA with an American flag flown over Main Justice and presented to his family at his memorial service. George also served as the Mississippi Commissioner of Public Safety, the top State law enforcement position. He will be honored once again on January 10, 2020, as the Mississippi Department of Public Safety dedicates the Mississippi Highway Safety Patrol Troop K- District Office in his honor in Biloxi. George Phillips Building Dedication Ceremony 1.10.20

William D. Ruckelshaus, who was the keynote speaker at the NAFUSA conference in Seattle in 2009, died on November 27, 2019, at his home in Medina, Washington. He was 87.

In 1973, Ruckelshaus was named acting FBI director and then deputy attorney general during the time of the Watergate investigation. Attorney General Elliott Richardson appointed Archibald Cox, a Harvard law professor, to investigate the break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex. When Cox requested access to the Oval Office tape recordings of the time immediately after the break-in, President Nixon refused access and ordered the Attorney General to fire Cox. Richardson refused and resigned. Ruckelshaus was then ordered by the White House to fire Cox, and he, too, refused and resigned.

At NAFUSA’s Seattle conference, Ruckelshaus spoke of the “Saturday Night Massacre” publicly for the first time. Click here to read Ruckelshaus keynote speech Remembering Watergate. It is one of the most memorable keynote speeches in NAFUSA history.

Ruckelshaus later served as the administrator of EPA, under appointment by President Ronald Reagan. He attended Princeton University and received his law degree from Harvard.

Long time NAFUSA member Robert M. Morgenthau passed away at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, after a short illness. He was 99. A dues paying member of NAFUSA until his death, Morgenthau was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to serve as the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York in 1961. He served in that position until 1970. He was the only active member of NAFUSA from the Kennedy Administration. He served as the Manhattan District Attorney from 1975 until 2009. He was honored by NAFUSA at its 2010 New York Annual Conference upon his retirement from public service.

He is survived by his second wife Lucinda Franks, whom he married in the 1970s. He was the co-subject of her book, Timeless Love, Morgenthau, and Me, published in 2014.

As is our custom, NAFUSA has requested that an American flag be flown over Main Justice in Mr. Morgenthau’s honor and it will be presented to his family as a token of the regard with which he was held by his colleagues.

Click here to read The New York Times obituary.

Thomas Johnson Ashcraft, 66, of Charlotte, North Carolina, died September 25, 2018 at his home after a long battle with cancer. Tom served as the US Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina from 1987 until 1993. In addition to practicing law, Tom’s career included serving as a legislative aid to the late Senator Jessie Helms in the 1980’s. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the London School of Economics and from the Wake Forest University School of Law.

Tom is survived by his sister, Nicky Wallace of Greenville, SC and nieces and nephews, Monte Stone and her husband, Kirk, Sara Spicer Heath and her husband, Tom, Ben Wallace and his wife, Ginger, Shepard Wallace and his wife, Amanda, Courtney Evans and Emily Evans.

A mass was held on September 29, 2018 at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte.
Memorials may be sent to Belmont Abby College, 100 Belmont-Mt. Holly Road, Belmont, NC 28012. As is our custom, NAFUSA will request that an Amerian flag be flown over Main Justice in Tom’s honor and presented by NAFUSA to his family.