Memorial Service for Dawn Clark Netsch

CHICAGO --- A memorial service for Dawn Clark Netsch, professor of law emerita, will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, April 13 in Thorne Auditorium, Northwestern University School of Law, 375 E. Chicago Ave., in Chicago. The service is open to the public. A reception will be held in the Atrium immediately following the service.

Visit the Dawn Clark Netsch memorial Web site to comment in the guest book and learn how to make a memorial gift.

Netsch passed away from complications of ALS – Lou Gehrig’s disease on March 5. She was 86. 

Netsch joined the Northwestern Law faculty in 1965, becoming its first female faculty member. She was elected Illinois State Comptroller in 1990 and again made history in 1994 as the first woman to run for governor on a major-party ticket in Illinois. A member of the Illinois Constitutional Convention in 1970, she was an Illinois state senator for 18 years, representing the 13^th and then the 4^th district. Recognized as an expert on constitutional law, she co-authored the definitive text on state and local government, State and Local Government in a Federal System, 6^th Edition.

Netsch graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Northwestern in 1948 and received her JD from Northwestern Law in 1952.

Born Patricia Dawn Clark in Cincinnati, Ohio, on Sept. 16, 1926, she was preceded in death by her husband of 45 years, renowned architect Walter A. Netsch, and her brother W. Keith Clark. Survivors include her sister-in-law Sachiko Clark of Carson City, Nev.; nephews Andrew D. (Pamela) Kerr of Wilmette, Ill.; William S. (Tracy) Kerr III of Topanga, Calif.; Keith DeWitt Clark and Gregory Joseph Clark of Hyattsville, Md.; niece Elizabeth N. Kerr of Mt. Prospect, Ill.; and great nephews Andrew D. (Lindsay) Kerr Jr., of San Francisco and Mathias S. Kerr of Chicago.

The family requests, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the ALS-Les Turner Foundation or Northwestern University School of Law (LRAP). Private funeral services were held.