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1
SENATE RESOLUTION

 
2    WHEREAS, The members of the Illinois Senate are saddened to
3learn of the death of Tom Roeser, who passed away on May 28,
42011; and
 
5    WHEREAS, Tom Roeser was born in Evanston; he was a graduate
6of St. John's University in Minnesota; and
 
7    WHEREAS, Tom Roeser started his career as a newspaper
8reporter; he later covered politics in Minnesota, where he
9became a research-publicist for the Minnesota Republican
10Party; he subsequently served as an aide to two United States
11congressmen and a governor; he later returned to Chicago to
12launch the Quaker Oats Company's government relations
13department in 1964 and continued his education with
14post-graduate studies at DePaul and Loyola Universities; and
 
15    WHEREAS, In 1964, Tom Roeser was named manager-public
16affairs for the Quaker Oats Company; he was then promoted to
17Director of Public Affairs in 1966, serving in that capacity
18until 1969; he left Quaker temporarily to assume a role in the
19federal government as assistant to the Secretary of Commerce
20for Minority Enterprise in 1969; he then recommended the
21abolition of his own agency, which was a controversial
22challenge to the permanent bureaucracy, and was reassigned as

 

 

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1Director of Public Affairs for the Peace Corps, where he served
2as a foreign service officer until 1971; in 1971, he returned
3to the Quaker Oats Company, where he served as vice president
4until his retirement in 1991; and
 
5    WHEREAS, In 1994, Tom Roeser joined WLS Radio and became
6the host of "The Tom Roeser Show"; he quickly became a valued
7member of the WLS on-air lineup; he was heard primarily in his
8regular Sunday night slot, where listeners could participate in
9his radio 'plebiscites', weighing in on the political issues of
10the past week, and look forward to the week ahead; in 2007, he
11formed the Chicago Daily Observer, the city's first
12Internet-based five-day a week newspaper; and
 
13    WHEREAS, Tom Roeser was a senior correspondent and talk
14show host for Catholic Family Radio, a network with outlets in
15Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis, and Milwaukee; he
16was also an occasional commentator on "Chicago Tonight" on
17WTTW-TV; and
 
18    WHEREAS, Tom Roeser was a member of the American Federation
19of Television, the Radio Artists AFL-CIO, the Catholic Citizens
20of Illinois, the Haymarket Center, Project LEAP, the Better
21Government Association, the United Republican Fund of
22Illinois, the Chicago Committee of the Council of Foreign
23Relations, Rotary International, the Rockford Institute, and

 

 

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1the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars; he also served as
2president of the City Club of Chicago for 17 years; and
 
3    WHEREAS, In 1988, Tom Roeser and his wife were named by
4Pope John Paul II as a Knight and Lady of the Equestrian Order
5of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem; and
 
6    WHEREAS, Tom Roeser is survived by his wife, Lillian; his
7four children; and his 13 grandchildren; therefore, be it
 
8    RESOLVED, BY THE SENATE OF THE NINETY-SEVENTH GENERAL
9ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we mourn, along with
10his family and friends, the passing of Tom Roeser; and be it
11further
 
12    RESOLVED, That a suitable copy of this resolution be
13presented to the family of Tom Roeser as an expression of our
14sympathy.