It was during a visit to a hometown library in the segregated South that a young Chester Blair had one of his earliest encounters with racism.

Pulled aside by a disapproving librarian after going through the checkout line, the Texas native was told not to return to that library — one serving mostly whites — and to bring his book back to the library closer to where he lived in a black section of town.

"He was just a boy, but he knew that wasn't right," said his wife of 46 years, Judith. "He knew you don't treat people like that."

Years later, after moving to Chicago and attending college, Mr. Blair taught in Chicago Public Schools before earning a law degree and building a law practice.

"He was the kind of person that kept pushing his life forward, and by doing so, he advanced the lives of so many others," his wife said.

Mr. Blair, 86, the first elected African-American president of the Chicago Bar Association, died Monday, March 16, at a special care facility in Cincinnati, of complications related to Alzheimer's disease. Formerly a longtime resident of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, he and his wife had moved to Cincinnati two years ago to be closer to family members.

Read the full obituary in the Chicago Tribune.