Justice Mary Ann Grohwin McMorrow
1928-2013

 

On Saturday, February 23, 2013, we lost one of the most outstanding civil servants from our great state of Illinois. The daughter of Pole Roman Grohwin and his wife Emily, McMorrow was raised on the northwest side of Chicago in the predominantly Polish parish of St. Stanislaus Kostka. She was a great friend to the Polish community and never forgot her roots.

A graduate of Rosary College, she then obtained her law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1953 as the only woman in the graduating class. After serving the citizens of Cook County with distinction as an assistant states attorney, McMorrow was elected to the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1976 and then, a decade later, to the Illinois Appellate Court.

In 1992, she was elected as the first female Associate Justice to the Illinois Supreme Court in its 173 year history. In 2002, she became the Court's Chief Justice. Retiring from the bench on July 5, 2006, she aptly quoted Abraham Lincoln: "Let us have faith that right makes might, and in that faith let us to the end there to do our duty as we understand it." Justice McMorrow served as a role model and mentor to many in her many years of distinguished service. The Polish American Association remembers her for her many contributions and extends its prayers and thoughts to her family and loved ones.

 

Conrad C. Nowak
Chairman of the Board

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