John C. (Jack) Feirich, 85 years of age, of Spokane, Washington and formerly of Sandpoint, Idaho; Scottsdale, Arizona; Naples, Florida; and Carbondale, Illinois passed away Jan. 14 after a year-long battle with cancer.  He was born Jan. 2, 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, the son of John K. and Mary M. Feirich. 

He is survived by his wife, C. Kay Feirich, two children, John Charles Feirich of Oceanside, California and Elizabeth Feirich Nebot of Sausalito, California, three grandchildren, four great grandchildren all of Vista, California, sister, Gretchen Lewellyn, Scottsdale, AZ, stepson, Jeffrey Brummer (Alisa) of Fairview, Oregon and two step-grandchildren.

John attended Northwestern University and the University of Illinois College of Law, and thereafter engaged in the private practice of law in Carbondale with his father and grandfather. He continued practicing law in Carbondale until he retired in 1988. He then moved to Naples, Florida, where he pursued his love of sailing in retirement and met and married his wife Kay. After many years, they moved to the Pacific Northwest; first to Idaho and then to Washington, where they became avid golfers. John also spent five years attempting to obtain authority from the State of Washington to rebuild David Thompson's Historic Trading Post. 

During his legal career, he gave freely of his time for the betterment of the legal profession and for the benefit of those members of the public who needed lawyers but could not afford them. He co-founded the Lawyer's Trust Fund of Illinois that has raised millions of dollars to provide legal services for those needy persons.

He was a member of various legal organizations in which he rose to high levels. This included The Illinois State Bar Association, where he served as president from 1982-83, the American Bar Association, where he was chairman of the General Practice Section, and The American College of Trial Lawyers. He spent years working as a co-author of The Illinois Pattern Jury Instructions, a publication of which he was extremely proud.

He was the founder and first president of Air Illinois, a third level airline providing commuter and connecting airline services from Carbondale to St. Louis, Springfield, and Chicago.