William "Bill" Franz, an attorney whose 54-year career coincided with Crystal Lake's tremendous post-war growth, died Sunday, April 12, 2015, in Chicago of complications from lymphoma.

Lending playful humor to dry legal proceedings, he played a leading role in Crystal Lake's residential and commercial development. He often served as a public advocate, as when his firm contested in court and won a judgment in the 1980s against a proposed new landfill in McHenry County by a large company with a checkered environmental record. He touched the lives of many throughout the community, in public and private, large and small ways.

He was born in Dayton, Ohio on December 3, 1930. Two years later, at the height of the Great Depression, his family moved to Crystal Lake. He suffered through a succession of serious diseases as a child and, like many of the time, grew up in difficult economic circumstances. For some time, he and his brothers slept in homemade bunks on the outside porch of his family's small house. Looking back on those days, he recalled it was pretty difficult to get out of the warm bed on cold winter mornings.

He graduated from Crystal Lake Community High School in 1948 and was his senior class president. He attended the University of Michigan where he competed on the swim team for two years before service in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War interrupted his studies. During his military service, he learned to speak Russian and later obtained a commission as a second lieutenant before being discharged at the war's end.

Having worked constantly throughout his lifetime, holding a succession of 53 different jobs before he turned 30, he completed Chicago Kent Law School in 1959 and embarked on his 54th job, his law career.

He was preceded in death by his parents, four brothers, and one sister.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Jane Franz; two sisters, Bonnie Franz Ogden and Sandy Franz Reynolds; four children, David Franz, Julie McConnell, Liz Franz, and Sue Soden; seven grandchildren, Katherine and Alex Franz of Arlington, VA, Emma and Isabel Soden of Crystal Lake, and Lucia, Carly, and Paige McConnell of Kenilworth, IL.

Services have been held. Inurnment will be private.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests any memorials be made to the First Congregational Church or the charity of your choice .

You may leave online condolences for the family at www.davenportfamily.com, or call 815-459-3411, for information.