Hon. William A. Wenzel III 1942 - 2022
Hon. William A. Wenzel III, 79, passed away peacefully in his Chicago home the morning of Friday, March 25, 2022.
William, or Bill, as he was known to most, was born to on November 4, 1942, to Esther and Bill Wenzel in Cicero, IL. He attended Military school where he graduated with honors and went on to attend Northwestern University where he graduated in 1964 with a major in Philosophy.
After College, Bill went to work for his family’s business, Central Can Company. It was during this time that he met and fell in love with the love of his life, Mary Sims, who were then married on August, 15, 1970. Bill Wenzel and Mary S. Wenzel had one child, Caroline Elizabeth Wenzel, born September 6, 1981.
Shortly thereafter, Bill attended and graduated from Loyola Law School in 1973 which lead to a long and distinguished career in law including representing the State of Illinois in two cases in front of the U.S .Supreme Court and eventually becoming a Social Security Administrative Law Judge in 1989 where he remained until his passing this year. He was an active participant in the Social Security Judges Union, where he has elected Vice President and worked to improve working conditions for Administrative Law judges around the country.
In addition to the law, Bill was an avid reader and student of classical literature. He took post graduate studies at the University of Chicago where he completed their 4-year-long study of the “great books,” called the Basic Program and continued to take graduate level intensive classes focused on specific works and/or themes.
Bill Wenzel loved to fish, a hobby he started with his father where they would often take road trips to the Upper Peninsula Boundary Waters in search of various trout and bass. Bill and Mary were season ticket holders at the Lyric Opera, and Bill held a special place in his heart for Luciano Pavarotti, Renee Flemming, and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. Being part Sicilian by blood, travel to Italy and cooking of its foods and drinking of its wines with family and friends made up a very special part of his life.
Bill was survived by his wife, Mary, 79, and daughter Caroline, 40.