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Bernie Judge, who died at the age of 79 on June 14 in Chicago, was the top editor of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times before serving as editor and publisher of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin from 1988 to 2007.
By CHRISTOPHER HEIMERMAN For Illinois Press Association
CHICAGO – John Gorman will never forget the time Bernie Judge “gushed” over his reporter’s remarkable performance under great duress.
Judge, a longtime editor and model of investigative journalism, died at his Chicago home June 14 of pancreatic cancer. He was 79, and 54 years removed from the beginning of an illustrious career when he joined the City News Bureau of Chicago. He’d go on to become the top editor of the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times, before serving as editor and publisher of the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin from 1988 to 2007.
He was appointed in 2012 by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve as commissioner of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.
Sandy and Brewster Macfarland, the owners of Law Bulletin Media, issued a written statement mourning Judge’s death.
“We are saddened at the loss of Bernie. He was a legend in the newspaper industry, revered by many, including judges and lawyers. As editor and publisher, Bernie increased the Chicago Daily Law Bulletin editorial coverage of the Chicago legal community and he was also instrumental in acquiring the Chicago Lawyer magazine. We fondly remember Bernie, who retired in 2007, dispensing wisdom he learned from a tough, old editor at the City News Bureau: ‘If your mother says she loves you, check it out.’”
Back in 1977, Judge was the city editor, and Gorman was working midnights as a general assignment reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Shortly after the sun rose, and as his shift neared its end, a corrupt Chicago police officer was shot to death on the Northwest Side. As Gorman cranked out the officer’s backstory and re-wrote the murder details from the reporter in the field, word came in about four more bodies found in Park Ridge.
Gorman burned up the phone lines.
“I called the Park Ridge Police Department, who told me to call back in a couple of years," Gorman recalled. "I called the coroner, who didn't know anything. I called the sheriff's police and the State Police, and they said they didn't know anything."
So he called General Hospital in Park Ridge, where he got a nurse to tell him the bodies were coming, and where they were coming from.
Then Judge walked in, got his coffee, and sat down to start his shift a few feet from Gorman.
“So I'm working right underneath his nose,” Gorman said, with a tone that still notes a desire to make Judge proud. Gorman grabbed the reverse number phone book and found 15 numbers at 6714 N. Northwest Highway. He called the numbers at the office building and finally reached not only a worker, but the guy who was met by the bodies outside the elevator.
"He said when it opened up, there were four dead bodies stacked like cordwood," Gorman said. "I wrote about eight paragraphs just before the deadline erupted at 8:30, and Bernie looks over at me and says, 'Nice job,’ Gorman said, laughing.
“High praise, and enough praise. I don't think that hurt my career, since he saw me work under fire, under pressure, and probably did exactly what Bernie would have done."
Judge kept Gorman on the John Gacy case for three weeks. He put him on a 14-day series on elder care issues. Titled “Growing Old in America,” it was a runner-up for the Pulitzer Prize, Gorman said.
Two projects Judge oversaw at the Tribune did, in fact, garner the prestigious Pulitzer in 1976: one on abuses in Chicago federal housing programs, and another on conditions at two private hospitals.
Judge made Gorman’s career possible, he said. He even remembers the date Judge hired him: Sept. 13, 1974.
But what stands out most was Judge persuading Gorman to stick around and be his assistant when Gorman said he was considering throwing his hat in the ring for a job with the Chicago Tribune’s Atlanta bureau.
"He said, 'Yeah, you could do that, but how would you like to be an assistant city editor?"
Jerry Crimmins, who first worked with Judge 49 years ago at the Tribune, said Judge was “the most unphony person you ever met.”
“Bernie had no attitude or pose, such as some young men adopt as a new supervisor if they secretly lack confidence or are uncertain,” Crimmins said. “He was a straight guy. He was an aggressive newsman.”
They’d both worked for the City News Bureau and shared the same news judgment, training and ideas, Crimmins said. Judge’s subordinates never had to wonder where they stood, and they never found themselves without backup, according to another longtime colleague, John McCarron, who wrote a letter to Judge shortly before he passed away.
“Peel away that Studs Lonigan shell (How else to command 200 know-it-alls?), and here was a guy who would back you without fail,” he wrote in the letter. “... You always took care of yours. It’s a lesson we’d do well to pass on to ours.”
Judge was known as “Skipper” in the newsroom - and not just because he encouraged Crimmins to set up the dayside-versus-nightside summer softball picnic.
"He had moxy," Gorman said.
“Even at work, especially as night city editor, Bernie was a social guy, like the captain of a sports team,” Crimmins said. Crimmins said when Judge was promoted to city editor for the Tribune in 1974, he had to get tough in order to guide 100 reporters and beat deadlines.
Judge’s contemporaries agree that while he was direct and demanding, he was also indisputably likeable, and that he genuinely liked his peers, too.
“I never saw him in hot anger; I don’t think a lot of people did,” Crimmins said. “You could tell it was in him, but he generally kept it under wraps.”
Unless someone wronged someone in Judge’s bunker.
“I did hear him once loudly and fiercely scold a lawyer who had lied to us,” Crimmins said.
In 2007, Judge was a recipient of the James C. Craven Freedom of the Press Award, an award established in 1993 by the Illinois Press Association to honor the legacy of former Illinois Appellate Court Justice James C. Craven, a crusader in the areas of media issues and voting rights on behalf of blacks and Hispanics.
"The thing about Bernie was that he knew everybody, and it seemed most everybody knew and respected Bernie," said Don Craven, James Craven's son and the legal counsel for the Illinois Press Association. "Dad and I have been working with the Press Association since the early 1980s, and have the opportunity to work with journalists across Illinois, at newspapers large and small. There were two 'go-to' guys in the editorial realm that were unmatched. Bernie was one, John Foreman was the other. When faced with a dilemma, Bernie was always willing to listen, turn problems upside down, shake it around, and would always come up with a solution. And, if you needed somebody who knew something about something in greater Chicago, Bernie would know somebody. Best of all, he had stories that would make you laugh 'til you cried.
"He touched an untold number of lives in the world of journalism, and left each of us better than we were before."
When Judge’s son-in-law, John Schott, spoke at the open mic reception following Judge’s funeral, the message resonated with Gorman.
“He said Bernie told him he was proud of him,” Gorman said.
Again, it was the highest praise a guy could get.
"Bernie wasn't throwing around compliments willy-nilly," Gorman said. "When he said that, it really meant a lot."
Judge’s colleagues met his children, Bernie R. Judge, Jessica Schott and Kelly Goldberg, when they were just kids, when about a half-dozen co-workers were invited to Judge’s home after the summer picnics. Judge, along with his wife, Kimbeth Wehrli Judge, were wonderful hosts, Crimmins said.
“They were a fun couple, and Kimbeth would devise all sorts of clever games,” he said. “Or we might sing Irish songs in their kitchen for an hour or so.”
Judge was an immigrant’s son, born Jan. 6, 1940, on the South Side to Bernard A. Judge and Catherine Hallorn Judge. He attended John Carroll University in Ohio, but didn’t get his degree, and later did a tour of duty in the Army before working at the U.S. Steel South Works plant on the Southeast Side.
He is also survived by his wife and children; daughter-in-law, Gina Judge; sons-in-law, Schott and Michael K. Goldberg; five grandchildren, Declan, Henry, Ava, Daniel, and Isabella; and two sisters, Mary Supina and Cathy Judge Gallagher.
According to an obituary penned by Crimmins for the Daily Law Bulletin, Michael Goldberg, managing partner of Goldberg Law Group, called his father-in-law “a legend in the legal community.”
“Everyone assumed he was a lawyer because of how perceptive he was about the law,” Goldberg said. “More important, he was my friend and I loved him.”
Bernie Judge ((left) and Lanning Macfarland Jr. present the Person of the Year award to then Chief Judge Donald O’Connell of Cook County Circuit Court Law Division. He was the first recipient of an annual award Judge started to promote excellence in the legal profession, one of many policies and programs he started at LBPC, a member of the IPA. Macfarland was active in IPA leadership.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 26, 2026 Media Contact Information: Cartwheel Emily Paisner (888) 500-2067 emily.paisner@cartwheelcare.org
$1 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois will help Cartwheel scale access to care in rural and underserved communities through 2028
CHICAGO — August 26, 2026 — Cartwheel Care, a telehealth mental health provider for K-12 schools, today announced plans to expand access to care for up to 100,000 students across Illinois, supported by a $1 million grant from Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois (BCBSIL). The additional funding builds on an existing partnership between Cartwheel and BCBSIL, following a year of strong engagement and clinical outcomes. Cartwheel currently serves 40 Illinois school districts, and the grant will help expand services further into rural and underserved communities across the state through 2028. Mental health needs among Illinois students remain high. According to data from Lurie Children’s Hospital, approximately 50% of Illinois youth (ages 2–17) have experienced worsening mental health symptoms in recent years. At the same time, access to care has not kept pace: more than 80 of Illinois’ 102 counties have no practicing child psychiatrist, and the shortage is most acute in rural areas, where families often wait months for an appointment or travel significant distances for care. Cartwheel’s telehealth model is designed to remove the access barriers rural families face, like long waitlists and the need to travel to see a provider. By partnering with schools, Cartwheel provides licensed, Illinois-based clinicians with no waitlist, accepts all major insurance plans including Medicaid, and reaches kids and families where they already are, without requiring them to find or travel to an outside provider. “Every student experiences mental health challenges differently, and there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to supporting them,” said Dr. Juliana Chen, chief medical officer at Cartwheel. “Our goal is to meet students and families where they are, with practical support that helps them build skills, strengthen relationships, and feel more confident navigating challenges at school and at home. BCBSIL’s support is what allows us to bring that care to more Illinois communities.” “Supporting the health and well-being of Illinois youth is critical to building stronger communities,” said Brian Snell, president of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois. “The results we’ve seen through our partnership with Cartwheel demonstrate the impact that timely, accessible mental health services can have for students and families. This investment will help bring those services to even more communities across our state.” To date, four Illinois districts have received Cartwheel’s services through this grant: Steger SD 194 in Cook County and Will County, Troy CCSD 30-C in Will County, Mattoon CUSD 2 in Coles County, and Wolf Branch SD #113 in St. Clair County. In the first year of the program, more than 200 students were referred for care and completed more than 1,000 telehealth sessions. Appointments were scheduled in the same week with no waitlist. Sixty-eight percent of students served were covered by Medicaid or uninsured. Overall, 73% of students showed meaningful improvement in anxiety and depression symptoms on standard clinical screeners (GAD-7/PHQ-9). Additional districts where Cartwheel services are launching this fall include Litchfield CUSD #12, Panhandle CUSD #2, Leyden High School District #212, and Regional Office of Education #40. With the support of this grant, Cartwheel expects to expand into another 30 to 50 school districts, bringing access to care to a total of 100,000 students across Illinois. “Before this partnership, getting a student connected to care could take months,” said Jeffrey Peterson, director of student services & records at Troy CCSD 30-C. “Now our counselors can refer a student, know they’ll be seen within days, and are seeing real improvements as a result.” Through the grant, Cartwheel provides individual and family therapy, parent guidance, psychiatric evaluation and medication management, and specialized care programs for challenges like school avoidance, social media use, and intense emotions and behavior challenges. As reported in Illinois Policy, in 2025 about 25% of Illinois students missed at least 10% of the school year and this was more severe among low-income students, with 35.1% in that group chronically absent. Cartwheel’s school avoidance program delivers evidence-based care designed specifically for students struggling with school avoidance. In partnership with Cartwheel, Peoria Public Schools saw a 62% reduction in absences per student, along with decreases in suspensions and symptoms of depression and anxiety. Illinois school districts that want to learn more about this opportunity for the upcoming school year should visit: www.cartwheel.org/illinois. About Cartwheel Cartwheel is the nation’s largest and most trusted telehealth provider for K-12 schools, students, and families. Cartwheel partners with 350 school districts across 15 states to deliver comprehensive mental health services to students, families, and school staff. Founded in 2022 by educators and clinicians, Cartwheel combines evidence-based clinical care with technology to ensure every child has access to high-quality mental health support. Cartwheel accepts all major insurance plans including Medicaid and provides care at no cost to uninsured families. For more information visit: www.cartwheel.org. About Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois is the largest health insurer in Illinois, serving nine million members and operating in all 102 Illinois counties. BCBSIL is a division of Health Care Service Corporation, a Mutual Legal Reserve Company and an Independent Licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. Learn more at bcbsil.com and follow us on Facebook and LinkedIn.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Aug. 24, 2026 Media Contact Information: Mather Institute Cindy Droog, president, Sabo PR (616) 717-8654 cindy@sabo-pr.com
Free online tool by Mather Institute supports local planning, partnership and investments
EVANSTON, Illinois – Chicago has a new tool to help understand where neighborhood conditions support social wellness among older adults – and where thoughtful investment and partnership may expand opportunities. Mather Institute launched a first-of-its-kind free Social Wellness Map, which scores the 77 community areas in Chicago on social wellness – a measure of feeling connected with others and with a community – for adults 55 and better. Previous research shows strong social ties are one of the most important predictors of a happy and long life, and that neighborhoods and communities shape how people interact, support one another and build shared identity. Mather Institute developed the map in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago. Designed as a planning and advocacy resource, the interactive map can help policymakers, community organizations, funders, planners and service providers explore local patterns, identify assets and consider where new investments may have the greatest benefit for older adults. “Social wellness is a crucial, yet often overlooked, part of healthy aging,” said Cate O’Brien, MPH, Ph.D., chief transformation officer at Mather Institute. “Because every community contains diverse histories, people and experiences, the map is intended to inform – not replace – local knowledge. The most useful next step is conversation. When organizations bring this data together with resident voices, they can better understand what is already working and what could be most beneficial to older adults and their communities.” The map is based on a new survey of more than 4,000 Chicago residents age 55 and better, combined with public data on community conditions, including walkability, economic factors and access to gathering places such as libraries, churches and community centers. Factors such as crime, lack of local businesses and poverty can hinder social wellness, but don’t tell the whole story. Users can view a side-by-side comparison of communities to explore how social wellness relates to health, happiness, income and other factors. Key findings include:
“Community leaders often have deep local knowledge, but need data to support the case for programs, funding and partnerships,” said Jennifer L. Smith, Ph.D., vice president of Mather Institute. “The Social Wellness Map offers another lens for understanding older adults’ experiences and for turning local insight into action.” High social wellness scores were not confined to one part of Chicago or to its wealthiest areas, suggesting that other factors such as neighborhood identity, belonging and longstanding social ties are also important to connection. Chatham emerged as a notable example, with a social wellness score of 8.14 out of 10, illustrating social wellness reflects aspects of community life beyond economic and safety indicators alone. Beverly received the highest community connectability score: 100 out of 100. Beverly is notable for its low crime rates, a strong family culture and several longstanding community gathering places. Jefferson Park stood out for having community conditions that support connection such as accessible transit, retail activity and established cultural gathering places. The map is free to use and does not require user registration. It can be explored at: https://www.matherinstitute.com/social-wellness-map/
About Mather and Mather Institute
Based in Evanston, Illinois, Mather is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1941 that is dedicated to a vision of changing the way society views aging. Mather creates Ways to Age Well℠ through programs, places and residences for today’s older adults. These include developing and operating communities that support older adults in pursuing wellness and fulfillment; sparking creativity and connections for older adults in Chicagoland and beyond; and through Mather Institute, conducting research and incubating innovation to help all live and age well.
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